Recent History of Publication-Based Academic Interest in General Anesthetics

Abstract Purpose The aim of this study was to determine how interest in various general anesthetics among the authors of academic publications changed over the past 50 years. Methods Publication-based academic interest were analyzed using specific scientometric indices: popularity index (PI), top journal selectivity index (TJSI), and index of change (IC). Terms used for searches were the names of drugs belonging to two pharmacological classes of general anesthetics – inhaled and intravenous. Only those that had a PI value > 2.0 during at least one of the 10 five-year periods, from 1967 to 2016, were selected. Results The PI, an index of comparative popularity, reflects a consistent decline in academic interest over time in both classes of general anesthetics. Over the past 25 years, the PI of inhaled anesthetics decreased by 52 %, and that of intravenous anesthetics fell by 32%. At the same time, the PI of anesthesia management increased by 167%. Among individual anesthetics, the most impressive change was a profound decline in halothane's PI, from 22.9 in 1972-1976 to 0.5 in 2012-2016. The interest in halothane was gradually supplanted by that in new agents, initially by enflurane, followed by isoflurane and finally, sevoflurane. The next meaningful change was the gradual rise in sevoflurane's PI to surpass that of isoflurane. The most dramatic change among the PIs of intravenous anesthetics was associated with the introduction of propofol: an increase from 1.8 to its maximum of 13.6. Conclusions The study revealed a constant decline over time in academic interest in the pharmacological basis of general anesthesia relative to all fields of anesthesia combined.