A Decade of Post-Intensive Care Syndrome: A Bibliometric Network Analysis.

Nicolas Paul,Björn Weiss,Claudia D Spies,Henning Krampe,Valentina Albrecht,Claudia Denke

doi:10.3390/medicina58020170

Abstract

Background and Objectives: In 2012, the umbrella term post-intensive care syndrome (PICS) was introduced to capture functional long-term impairments of survivors of critical illness. We present a bibliometric network analysis of the PICS research field. Materials and Methods: The Web of Science core database was searched for articles published in 2012 or later using ‘post-intensive care syndrome’ and variant spellings. Using VOSviewer, we computed co-authorship networks of countries, institutions, and authors, as well as keyword co-occurrence networks. We determined each country’s relative research effort and Category Normalized Citation Index over time and analyzed the 100 most-cited articles with respect to article type, country of origin, and publishing journal. Results: Our search yielded 379 articles, of which 373 were analyzed. Annual PICS research output increased from 11 (2012) to 95 articles (2020). Most PICS research originates from the US, followed by England, Australia, the Netherlands, and Germany. We found various collaborations between countries, institutions, and authors, with recent collaborative networks of English and Australian institutions. Article keywords cover aspects of cognitive, mental health, and physical impairments, and more recently, COVID-19. Only a few keywords and articles pertained to PICS prevention and treatment. Conclusions: Our analysis of Web of Science-indexed PICS articles highlights the stark increase in PICS research output in recent years, primarily originating from US- and Europe-based authors and institutions. Despite the research field’s growth, knowledge gaps with respect to PICS prevention and treatment remain.

Highlights

Over the last decades, the number of patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) and the capacities in intensive care medicine have been growing continuously [1]
The Web of Science search yielded 379 articles, from which six articles were excluded as they did not pertain to ICU patients and/or post-intensive care syndrome (PICS) (Figure 1)
Records excluded (n = 6) because they - did not pertain to PICS (n = 5) - did not pertain to ICU patients (n = 1)

Summary

Introduction

The number of patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) and the capacities in intensive care medicine have been growing continuously [1]. Research in intensive care focused on interventions to improve ICU-centered and short-term outcome measures, such as ICU or hospital mortality [4]. In the 1980s and 1990s, only a few studies explored mortality, quality of life, and functional outcomes beyond ICU discharge [5,6,7,8,9] In this millennium, the intensive care research community acknowledged that mere survival of critical illness comes short of capturing the poor functional outcome of many ICU patients after leaving the hospital, which constitutes a heavy burden to both patients and caregivers [10]. Conclusions: Our analysis of Web of Science-indexed PICS articles highlights the stark increase in PICS research output in recent years, primarily originating from US- and Europe-based authors and institutions. Despite the research field’s growth, knowledge gaps with respect to PICS prevention and treatment remain

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Methods

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Discussion

Conclusion