Global distribution of publications in anesthesiology : A bibliometric analysis from 1999 to 2018

High-impact papers in the field of anesthesiology: a 10-year cross-sectional study

PURPOSE

This study was performed to evaluate trends in and provide future direction for anesthesiology education, research, and clinical practice.

METHODS

We collected high-impact papers, ranking in the top 10% in the field of anesthesiology and published from 2011 to 2020, by the InCites tool based on the Web of Science Core Collection. We analyzed the trends, locations, distribution of subject categories, research organizations, collaborative networks, and subject terms of these papers.

RESULTS

A total of 4,685 high-impact papers were included for analysis. The number of high-impact papers increased from 462 in 2011 to 520 in 2020. The paper with the highest value of category normalized citation impact (115.95) was published in Anesthesia and Analgesia in 2018. High-impact papers were mainly distributed in the subject categories of "Anesthesiology," "Clinical Neurology," "Neurosciences," and "Medicine General Internal." They were primarily cited in "Anesthesiology," "Clinical Neurology," "Neurosciences," "Medicine General Internal," and "Surgery." Most of these high-impact papers came from the USA, UK, Canada, Germany, and Australia. The most productive institutions were the League of European Research Universities, Harvard University, University of Toronto, University of London, University of California System, and University Health Network Toronto. Research collaboration circles have been formed in the USA, UK, and Canada. Subject-term analysis indicated postoperative analgesia, chronic pain, and perioperative complications were high-interest topics, and COVID-19 became a new hot topic in 2020.

CONCLUSIONS

The current study provides a historical view of high-impact papers in anesthesiology in the past ten years. High-impact papers were mostly from the USA. Postoperative analgesia, chronic pain, and perioperative complications have been hot topics, and COVID-19 became a new topic in 2020. These findings provide references for education, research, and clinical practice in the field of anesthesiology.

Global pediatric surgery and anesthesia inequities: how do we have a global effort?

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted the inequities in access to healthcare while also revealing our global connectivity. These inequities are emblematic of decades of underinvestment in healthcare systems, education, and research in low-middle income countries (LMICs), especially in surgery and anesthesiology. Five billion people remain without access to safe surgery, and we must take appropriate action now.

RECENT FINDINGS

The pediatric perioperative mortality in low-resourced settings may be as high as 100 times greater than in high-resourced settings, and a pediatric surgery workforce density benchmark of 4/1 million population could increase survivability to over 80%. Delay in treatment for congenital surgically correctable issues dramatically increases disability-adjusted life years. Appropriate academic partnerships which promote education are desired but the lack of authorship position priority for LMIC-based researchers must be addressed. Five perioperative benchmark indicators have been published including: geospatial access to care within 2 h of location; workforce/100,000 population; volume of surgery/100,000 population; perioperative mortality within 30 days of surgery or until discharged; and risks for catastrophic expenditure from surgical care.

SUMMARY

Research that determines ethical and acceptable partnership development between high- and low-resourced settings focusing on education and capacity building needs to be standardized and followed.