Global Scientific Outputs of Brain Death Publications and Evaluation According to the Religions of Countries

An Update on Brain Death/Death by Neurologic Criteria since the World Brain Death Project

The World Brain Death Project (WBDP) is a 2020 international consensus statement that provides historical background and recommendations on brain death/death by neurologic criteria (BD/DNC) determination. It addresses 13 topics including: (1) worldwide variance in BD/DNC, (2) the science of BD/DNC, (3) the concept of BD/DNC, (4) minimum clinical criteria for BD/DNC determination, (5) beyond minimum clinical BD/DNC determination, (6) pediatric and neonatal BD/DNC determination, (7) BD/DNC determination in patients on ECMO, (8) BD/DNC determination after treatment with targeted temperature management, (9) BD/DNC documentation, (10) qualification for and education on BD/DNC determination, (11) somatic support after BD/DNC for organ donation and other special circumstances, (12) religion and BD/DNC: managing requests to forego a BD/DNC evaluation or continue somatic support after BD/DNC, and (13) BD/DNC and the law. This review summarizes the WBDP content on each of these topics and highlights relevant work published from 2020 to 2023, including both the 192 citing publications and other publications on BD/DNC. Finally, it reviews questions for future research related to BD/DNC and emphasizes the need for national efforts to ensure the minimum standards for BD/DNC determination described in the WBDP are included in national BD/DNC guidelines and due consideration is given to the recommendations about social and legal aspects of BD/DNC determination.

Global trends in research of pseudomyxoma peritonei: a bibliometric and visualization analysis

Objective

Pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP) was a complex disease that had attracted increasing attention. However, there had been no bibliometric analysis of this disease so far. This study aimed to explore the current situation and frontier trend of PMP through bibliometric and visualization analysis, and to indicate new directions for future research.

Methods

The original research articles and reviews related to the PMP research were downloaded from Web of Science Core Collection on September 11, 2023. CiteSpace (6.2.R4) and VOSviewer(1.6.18) were used to perform bibliometric analysis of the publications, and establish the knowledge map. The data collected was analyzed using the Online Analysis Platform of Bibliometric to evaluate the cooperation of countries in this field.

Results

We identified 1449 original articles and reviews on PMP published between 1998 and 2023. The number of publications on PMP increased continuously. The United States, the United Kingdom and China were the top contributors. The most productive organization was the MedStar Washington Hospital Center. Sugarbaker, Paul H. was the most prolific author and the most cited. Keyword analysis showed that "Pseudomyxoma peritonei", "cancer", "cytoreductive surgery", and "hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy" were the most common keywords. The earliest and latest used keywords were "mucinous tumors" and "impact", respectively. "classification", "cytoreductive surgery", "appendiceal" were the top 3 strongest citation bursts. The reference "Carr NJ, 2016, AM J SURG PATHOL" had the highest co-citations.

Conclusion

This bibliometric analysis showed an increasing trend in literature related to PMP. The research trends and hotspots identified in this study could guide the future research directions in this field, in order to promote the development of PMP.

The Twenty-Five Most Cited Articles About Adductor Canal Block: A Bibliometric Analysis from 1980 to 2022

Introduction

Loco-regional anesthesia role is increasingly important in surgery, especially in postoperative pain control. Using ultrasound-guided techniques has made the loco-regional approach increasingly safe and manageable, guaranteeing excellent analgesic results and patient compliance. This bibliometric research aimed to identify the most influential papers on the adductor canal blocks and outline their characteristics.

Methods

All articles published from 1980 to 2022 were included in the Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus databases and found using the keywords "Adductor canal block" or "Saphenous nerve block" or "Peripheral nerve block" or "Hunter canal block" or "Subsartorial canal block" or "ACB" or "Knee" or "TKR" or "TKA" or "Analgesia" or "Arthroplasty" or "Replacement" in the title section had bibliometric analysis performed. The first 25 papers were selected and analyzed by the number of citations. The correlation between numerical variables was evaluated using the Pearson Correlation coefficient.

Results

Literature screening found 252 publications. One hundred ten were only about the adductor canal block. Of these, 25 articles were selected for our bibliometric study, published in 8 different journals and with a total number of citations equal to 1.457. "Regional Anesthesia and pain medicine" journal - with 9 articles - was the one that produced the most. There was a significant strong correlation between the n. of citations and the citation rate (R = 0.84, p < 0.001).

Conclusion

The purpose of this study is to be a guide on regional anesthesia and, particularly, on adductor canal block, making the most effective as well as the most cited articles available to anesthesiologists or other researchers interested in this topic.

Thirty years of research on traumatic brain injury rehabilitation: a bibliometric study

Background

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major public health concern with far-reaching consequences on individuals' lives. Despite the abundance of works published on TBI rehabilitation, few studies have bibliometrically analyzed the published TBI rehabilitation research. This study aims to characterize current international trends and global productivity by analyzing articles on TBI rehabilitation using bibliometric approaches and visualization methods.

Methods

We conducted a bibliometric analysis of data retrieved and extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection database to examine the evolution and thematic trends in TBI rehabilitation research up until December 31, 2022. The specific characteristics of the research articles on TBI rehabilitation were evaluated, such as publication year, countries/regions, institutions, authors, journals, research fields, references, and keywords.

Results

Our analysis identified 5,541 research articles on TBI rehabilitation and observed a progressive increase in publications and citations over the years. The United States (US, 2,833, 51.13%), Australia (727, 13.12%), and Canada (525, 9.47%) were the most prolific countries/regions. The University of Washington (226, 4.08%) and Hammond FM (114, 2.06%) were the most productive institution and author, respectively. The top three productive journals were Brain Injury (862; 15.56%), Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (630; 11.37%), and Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation (405, 7.31%). The most frequent research fields were Rehabilitation, Neurosciences, and Clinical Neurology. Co-citation references primarily addressed "outcome assessment," "community integration" and "TBI management," and "injury chronicity" and "sequelae" have gained more attention in recent years. "Mild TBI," "outcome," "stroke" and "children" were the commonly used keywords. Additionally, the analysis unveiled emerging research frontiers, including "return to work," "disorder of consciousness," "veterans," "mild TBI," "pediatric," "executive function" and "acquired brain injury."

Conclusion

This study provides valuable insights into the current state of TBI rehabilitation research, which has experienced a rapid increase in attention and exponential growth in publications and citations in the last three decades. TBI rehabilitation research is characterized by its multi-disciplinary approach, involving fields such as Rehabilitation, Neurosciences, and Clinical Neurology. The analysis revealed emerging research subjects that could inform future research directions.

Knowledge Mapping of Articles on Application of the Quran and Hadiths in Health Care: VOSviewer Visualization Techniques

This study sought to conduct a knowledge mapping of articles to shed light on the application of the Quran and Hadiths in health care. The study is applied in terms of purpose and scientometrics in terms of type, which has been carried out using retrospective bibliometric analysis methods and visualization through knowledge mapping. In order to do so, the PubMed database with related keywords was thoroughly searched. Then, 302 relevant articles were reviewed in terms of the author, the year of publication, the journal, and the subject. In addition, VOSviewer software was employed to analyze and visualize keywords and maps of the articles. The findings showed that 302 articles were published between 1972 and 2021 in 190 journals, among which the Journal of Religion and Health was ranked first with 43 articles. Word co-occurrence map of scientific products of the Quran and Hadith in health care were categorized into six clusters, namely: "complementary and alternative medicine," "ethics," "the effectiveness of spirituality on the treatment and control of mental illness," "women's rights and status," "family planning, infertility treatment and abortion," and "the views of the Quran and Hadiths on sexual issues." Adopting a holistic approach toward the application of various aspects of the Quran and Hadiths on health care, the present study can be considered as a pioneering research whose results can account for determining relevant applied research projects.

The evolution of cerebral palsy publications and global productivity: a bibliometric analysis between 1980 and 2019

Although cerebral palsy (CP), which affects the quality of life of many children and their families, is the most common cause of motor dysfunction in children, no comprehensive bibliometric study has holistically evaluated the publications on CP. This study aimed to analyze the scientific outputs published on CP in pediatrics research between 1980 and 2019 using bibliometric and statistical methods, and reveal new study trends in this field. The literature search was performed in the Web of Science database using the keyword cerebral palsy in the title section of the articles published only in the pediatrics research field. Four-thousand seventy-five publications were obtained in the field of pediatrics research on CP, 3027 of which were articles. We shared abstract information of 3027 articles published between 1980 and 2019 with this comprehensive bibliometric study, which will be a useful guide for physicians and scientists on the global outcomes of CP, and we discussed new trends in this topic. We think that comprehensive bibliometric analyzes on subjects that we frequently encounter in clinics and which are widely researched will contribute to the field.

A Holistic Assessment of Organ Transplantation Activities, Scientific Productivity on Brain Death in Islamic Countries, and Comparison of the Outcomes with the United Nations Development Statistics

About one-fourth of the world population belongs to the religion of Islam, and a significant number of people in the Muslim society, including health professionals, are dedicated themselves to the holy book Qur'an but unclear about the religious teachings on organ donation and transplantation. These people are dependent on religious rulings declared by ecclesiastical authorities (scholars and imams). In this study, we aimed to question the attitude of Islamic nations on organ donation and transplantation. Secondly, we endeavored to investigate how the Islamic perspective on these issues influences scientific productivity about the subject of brain death, which is undeviatingly related to organ transplantation. The term "brain death" was searched in Thomson Reuters, Web of Science search engine, only including Muslim countries. All of the data obtained were subjected to bibliometric analysis. We also compared the transplantation statistics of Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation Organization with the development statistics of the United Nations (UN). The two leading Muslim countries in terms of scientific productivity about brain death are Turkey and Iran. Transplantation proceedings is the leading scientific journal on this subject. These two countries have outperformed other Islamic countries in terms of organ donation and transplantation statistics. We also revealed that the human development index and education index of the UN have a positive correlation with the number of deceased transplantation, which is directly related to the number of brain-death-diagnosed cases (r 0.696, p < 0.05 and r 0.771, p < 0.05, respectively). Additionally, we found a positive correlation between expenditure on research and development data of the UN with the number of total transplantations performed and the number of scientific articles on brain death (r 0.889, p 0.01 and r 0.634, p < 0.05, respectively). There is not a consensus about brain death and organ transplantation in Islamic nations, and the majority of these countries have various hindrances about organ donation and transplantation. The legal authorities, health professionals, religious rulers, and media should spend every effort to educate the people on organ donation and transplantation. And, policymakers of Islamic nations should allocate extra funds for education and scientific activities to break down negative views on organ donation and transplantation.

Barriers to the Use of Neurologic Criteria to Declare Death in Africa

There are varying medical, legal, social, religious and philosophical perspectives about the distinction between life and death. Death can be declared using cardiopulmonary or neurologic criteria throughout much of the world. After solicitation of brain death/death by neurologic criteria (BD/DNC) protocols from contacts around the world, we found that the percentage of countries with BD/DNC protocols is much lower in Africa than other developing regions. We performed an informal review of the literature to identify barriers to declaration of BD/DNC in Africa. We found that there are numerous medical, legal, social and religious barriers to the creation of BD/DNC protocols in Africa including 1) limited number of healthcare facilities, critical care resources and clinicians with relevant expertise; 2) absence of a political and legal framework codifying death; and 3) cultural and religious perspectives that present ideological conflict with the idea of BD/DNC, in particular, and between traditional and Western medicine, in general. Because there are a number of unique barriers to the creation of BD/DNC protocols in Africa, it remains to be seen how the World Brain Death Project, which is intended to create minimum standards for BD/DNC around the world, will impact BD/DNC determination in Africa.

Bibliometric analysis of publications on pediatric epilepsy between 1980 and 2018

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE

Childhood epilepsy is one of the disease groups with the highest disease burden in society. This study aimed to guide researchers for new studies by determining the most compelling studies and current issues through a bibliometric analysis of scientific outputs about childhood epilepsy between 1980 and 2018.

METHODS

The literature review was conducted using the Web of Science (WoS) database. Epilepsy and status epilepticus were used as search keywords in WoS, and the search was performed only in the title section of the publications. Only publications in the research field of pediatrics were included in the study and were analyzed bibliometrically. Linear regression analysis was used to estimate the number of publications in the coming years.

RESULTS

It was seen that the number of articles on pediatric epilepsy has been increasing with a linear trend. A total of 3424 publications were found. Of these publications, 2197 (64.2%) articles were analyzed bibliometrically. The top two most productive countries were the USA(654) and Italy (199). The first two most active institutions were The Hospital for Sick Children (40, 1.8%) and Tel Aviv University (38, 1.7%). The top three journals that published the most were Journal of Child Neurology (422, 19.2%), Pediatric Neurology (335, 15.2%), and Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology (201, 9.1%).

CONCLUSION

In this bibliometric study on childhood epilepsies, a data summary of 2197 articles published between 1980 and 2018 is presented. We hope that this article will be a useful literature review and guide researchers working on pediatric epilepsy.

The evolution of the regional anesthesia: a holistic investigation of global outputs with bibliometric analysis between 1980-2019

Background

This study used bibliometric analysis of articles published about the topic of regional anesthesia from 1980-2019 with the aim of determining which countries, organizations, and authors were effective, engaged in international cooperation, and had the most cited articles and journals.

Methods

All articles published from 1980-2019 included in the Web of Science database and found using the keywords regional anesthesia/anaesthesia, spinal anesthesia/anaesthesia, epidural anesthesia/anaesthesia, neuraxial anesthesia/anaesthesia, combined spinal-epidural, and peripheral nerve block in the title section had bibliometric analysis performed. Correlations between the number of publications from a country with gross domestic product (GDP), gross domestic product (at purchasing power parity) per capita (GDP PPP), and human development index (HDI) values were investigated with the Spearman correlation coefficient. The number of articles that will be published in the future was estimated with linear regression analysis.

Results

Literature screening found 11,156 publications. Of these publications, 6,452 were articles. The top 4 countries producing articles were United States of America (n = 1,583), Germany (585), United Kingdom (510), and Turkey (386). There was a significant positive correlation found between the GDP, GDP PPP, and HDI markers for global countries with publication productivity (r = 0.644, P < 0.001; r = 0.623, P < 0.001, r = 0.542, P < 0.001). The most productive organizations were Harvard University and the University of Toronto.

Conclusions

This comprehensive study presenting a holistic summary and evaluation of 6,452 articles about this topic may direct anesthesiologists, doctors, academics, and students interested in this topic.

Global Collaboration in Artificial Intelligence: Bibliometrics and Network Analysis from 1985 to 2019

Purpose

This study aims to explore the trend and status of international collaboration in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and to understand the hot topics, core groups, and major collaboration patterns in global AI research.

Design/methodology/approach

We selected 38,224 papers in the field of AI from 1985 to 2019 in the core collection database of Web of Science (WoS) and studied international collaboration from the perspectives of authors, institutions, and countries through bibliometric analysis and social network analysis.

Findings

The bibliometric results show that in the field of AI, the number of published papers is increasing every year, and 84.8% of them are cooperative papers. Collaboration with more than three authors, collaboration between two countries and collaboration within institutions are the three main levels of collaboration patterns. Through social network analysis, this study found that the US, the UK, France, and Spain led global collaboration research in the field of AI at the country level, while Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates had a high degree of international participation. Collaboration at the institution level reflects obvious regional and economic characteristics. There are the Developing Countries Institution Collaboration Group led by Iran, China, and Vietnam, as well as the Developed Countries Institution Collaboration Group led by the US, Canada, the UK. Also, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (China) plays an important, pivotal role in connecting the these institutional collaboration groups.

Research limitations

First, participant contributions in international collaboration may have varied, but in our research they are viewed equally when building collaboration networks. Second, although the edge weight in the collaboration network is considered, it is only used to help reduce the network and does not reflect the strength of collaboration.

Practical implications

The findings fill the current shortage of research on international collaboration in AI. They will help inform scientists and policy makers about the future of AI research.

Originality/value

This work is the longest to date regarding international collaboration in the field of AI. This research explores the evolution, future trends, and major collaboration patterns of international collaboration in the field of AI over the past 35 years. It also reveals the leading countries, core groups, and characteristics of collaboration in the field of AI.

The evolution of hypospadias publications: A bibliometric approach

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE

Although the increasing prevalence of hypospadias has been reported in many countries, there is a lack of bibliometric studies that make a holistic assessment of the publications about this issue. This study aims to make a holistic evaluation, latest developments, and trend topics about hypospadias publications between 1980 and 2018 through bibliometric analysis.

METHODS

All the publications about hypospadias published in the Web of Science index between 1980 and 2018 were downloaded and analyzed using bibliometric methods. The Spearman's correlation coefficient was utilized to analyze the correlations between economic productivity and performance of the countries on hypospadias. Linear regression analysis was performed to estimate the number of publications for the following years.

RESULTS

Bibliometric analyses were performed with 1940 articles. With 527 (27.2%) publications, the USA was the country that made the most contribution to the literature. The top active 3 journals were the Journal of Urology, Journal of Pediatric Urology, and Urology. A high correlation was detected between hypospadias publication productivity and GDP (r=0.791, p<0.001). The regression analysis results showed that the expected number of articles to be produced was 95 (75-116) for 2019 and 106 (47-164) for 2024.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides a holistic evaluation of the articles about hypospadias, which is an anomaly that should be repaired and treated with surgery due to its potential problems for the children at kindergarten and school age. Increasing the collaboration between especially developing countries and research in different countries with samples from different communities through multidisciplinary studies are recommended.

The Effect of Religious Beliefs on the Publication Productivity of Countries in Circumcision: A Comprehensive Bibliometric View

Circumcision is one of the most common surgical operations in newborns, babies, and children due to cultural, religious, and medical reasons. Religious beliefs are known to have an important role in circumcision. Although bibliometric analyses have been performed about several topics with a lot of publications in literature, no studies in the literature were found to focus on male circumcision. This study aims to make a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of circumcision and investigate the relationship between publication productivity and religious beliefs of the countries. Web of Science was utilized to obtain the documents needed for bibliometric analyses. "Circumcision" keyword was used for search. The search included studies published between 1980 and 2018. The literature review indicated that there were 3694 publications about circumcision published between 1980 and 2018. Of these publications, 1770 (47.9%) were articles. This study provided a bibliometric summary of 1770 articles. The top five active countries about circumcision were the USA, England, South Africa, Turkey, and Kenya. The present study found that the religious beliefs of a country were directly related to publication productivity about circumcision. The top-cited study was the article entitled "Male circumcision for HIV prevention in young men in Kisumu, Kenya: a randomized controlled trial" written by Bailey et al. and published in the journal of Lancet. The keyword analysis results showed that HIV was the top keyword used in all articles about circumcision. This study is believed to help researchers interested in circumcision topic to access a summary of the literature, see contemporary and more important topics, and discover new ideas about the issue.

Determination of Brain Death/Death by Neurologic Criteria in Countries in Asia and the Pacific

Background and Purpose

We sought to 1) identify countries in Asia and the Pacific that have protocols for the determination of brain death/death by neurologic criteria (BD/DNC) and 2) review the similarities and differences of these protocols in different countries.

Methods

Between January 2018 and April 2019, we attempted to communicate with contacts in the 57 countries in Asia and the Pacific to determine if they had official national BD/DNC protocols. We reviewed and compared the identified protocols.

Results

We identified contacts for 40 (70%) of the 57 countries in Asia and the Pacific, and successfully communicated with 37 of them (93% of countries with contacts identified, 65% of countries in Asia and the Pacific). We found that 24 of the 37 countries had BD/DNC protocols. Two (13%) of the 16 protocols that provided a definition of death referred to brainstem death. Kazakhstan and Israel required only 1 examination to declare BD/DNC, while 10 (71%) of the other 14 protocols required 2 examinations separated by 6–48 hours. The prerequisites, clinical examination, apnea testing procedure, and indications for/selection of ancillary tests varied. Ancillary testing was required for all determinations of BD/DNC in five (21%) countries. Thirteen (54%) of the protocols included information about the time of death, while 12 (50%) of them provided instructions about discontinuation of organ support.

Conclusions

The protocols for conducting a BD/DNC determination vary markedly among countries in Asia and the Pacific. Since it is optimal to have internationally and intranationally consistent BD/DNC protocols, efforts should be made to harmonize protocols both within this region and worldwide.