Quantitative Review of Anesthesia in Liver Tumor Ablation: A Bibliometric Study from 1999 to 2022

BACKGROUND: Ablation has been developed as a radical surgical procedure for liver tumors. Local anesthesia in combination with general anesthesia or intravenous sedation is needed in ablative procedures. Although many studies have been published, a related bibliometric study is lacking. The present bibliometric analysis aimed to further understand the current situation of anesthesia for liver tumor ablation and discover candidate novel research directions. MATERIAL/METHODS: Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) was searched to identify studies associated with anesthesia for liver tumor ablation. Also, countries, journals, authors, and institutes contribution together with co-occurrence relations were analyzed by R, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace software; meanwhile, relevant research hotspots together with potential future trends were identified. RESULTS: This work obtained 183 English-language documents during 1999–2022, and the annual growth rate was 8.83%. Most studies were conducted in the United States (24.04%, 44/183). The Oslo Univ Hosp contributed the most publications (n=11, 6.01%). Livraghi T (n=6), De Baere T (n=5), and Goldberg SN (n=4) ranked top in terms of cited authors and top authors. Keywords from that co-cited network were aggregated and identified, which revealed a shift in the liver tumor ablation anesthesia field. Initially, hotspots were predominantly “alcohol injection”, “radiofrequency tissue ablation”, and “metastases”, but hotspots shifted to “efficacy”, “ablation”, “pain”, “microwave ablation”, “management”, “analgesia”, “safety”, “irreversible electroporation”, and “anesthesia” recently. CONCLUSIONS: Anesthesia has received increased attention as liver tumor ablation advances. Bibliometric study findings provide insight into the current state and trends of anesthesia in liver tumor ablation research.