Fluorescence-guided surgery is recognized in Latin America but remains inconsistently applied across surgical specialties, primarily due to economic and logistical barriers.

• Adoption is mostly in high-resource, specialized centers, with practical use seen in biliary, breast, urologic, and gastrointestinal surgeries.
• Barriers include limited operating room access, high costs of equipment and fluorophores, and unclear reimbursement policies, hindering broader implementation.

Surgeons express positive perceptions of safety and benefits, indicating strong interest in regional collaboration for data sharing and registry participation.

Surgeons’ subjective evaluations before surgery can significantly predict postoperative complications.

• 10.1% of patients had grade III complications in 2023; this increased to 12.3% in 2024.
• Surgeons’ preoperative assessment of general condition (q4) is the strongest predictor of severe complications (odds ratio 1.35 per 10-point increase).

Surgeons should consider their own insights along with traditional metrics to better stratify patient risk.

• The predictive model, including age and emergency status, showed solid performance (AUC 0.777 in 2023, 0.774 in 2024).

Surgeons must recognize that corporatization is compromising team cohesion and clinical performance.

• For-profit ownership accounts for 23.7% of U.S. healthcare market share in 2023, affecting surgical autonomy.
• Pressure for productivity is linked to increased burnout, higher error rates, and lower patient satisfaction.

Supporting structures that empower surgeons and maintain accountability could enhance outcomes and team performance.

• The “teams of teams” governance model fosters shared decision-making and trust, aligning financial goals with surgical excellence.