A study of mechanical ventilation in the ICU after cardiac surgery: a bibliometric analysis

BACKGROUND: After cardiac surgery, patients are often admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) due to various preoperative factors and continue to receive mechanical ventilation. This study sought to conduct a bibliometric analysis to summarize studies on mechanical ventilation among postoperative ICU patients who had undergone cardiac surgery. METHODS: We searched the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E) database using the following terms: “cardiac surgery (Topic)”, “intensive care (Topic)” and “ventilation (Topic)”. The search results were analyzed using R software. The analysis examined the number of publications of relevant articles and the annual change trend, the number of times an article was cited and the annual change trend, the distribution of countries conducting the research, the cooperation between countries and the citation frequency, the distribution of institutions conducting research, the cooperation between institutions, and the citation frequency, the number of published articles, the cooperation among researchers, and the citations frequency of researchers, the journals in which the articles were published, and the use of keywords. RESULTS: A total of 1,969 relevant research papers were included in this study. The main countries that conducted the relevant research included the United States (US), China, Germany, and Canada. The research institutions were mainly located in the US and Canada, and the main researchers were from research institutions in these countries. The most cited authors were Zappitelli, Hichey, and Wypij. According to Bradford's law, 9 core journals in this field were identified. The results of the keyword analysis showed that in the past 10 years, research has focused on the mortality of patients, but only a few related random controlled trials have been conducted. CONCLUSIONS: More randomized controlled trials need to be conducted in this field to provide higher evidence-based medical evidence.