Fluorescence imaging using indocyanine green significantly improves surgical outcomes in colorectal procedures.

• It reduces anastomotic leak rates with an odds ratio of 0.58 (95% CI 0.44-0.75).
• It enhances lymph node retrieval by an average of 6.32 nodes in gastrointestinal cancer surgeries (95% CI 4.43-8.22).

Intraoperative adjustments to transection points are feasible, improving surgical precision.

• Evidence remains limited for other applications like thoracic duct identification and esophageal anastomoses.