Perioperative and oncologic outcomes of the indocyanine green-guided lymphadenectomy versus non-indocyanine green-guided lymphadenectomy for gastric cancer: a protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

Backgrounds: Gastric cancer (GC) has a high global incidence and high mortality rate, with lymph node (LN) metastasis worsening prognosis. Indocyanine green (ICG)-guided lymphadenectomy has improved surgical precision over laparoscopic methods, but the safety of its clinical application in the field of GC still needs to be further evaluated. This meta-analysis compared ICG guided and conventional dissection in patients with GC, assessing surgical and survival outcomes to provide clearer clinical guidance. Methods: This study is registered in PROSPERO. We conducted a literature search of the Embase, Pubmed, and Cochrane databases from the time of library construction to July 2025. Long-term survival metrics, intraoperative metrics, short-term adverse event metrics, and postoperative recovery metrics were compared between ICG-guided lymphadenectomy and non-ICG-guided lymphadenectomy. The meta-analysis summarized the odds ratios, weighted mean differences, and 95% confidence intervals. Results: Evidence on the therapeutic effect of ICG-guided LN dissection on GC will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Conclusion: This study will provide high quality evidence of the effect of ICG on the treatment of GC.