Case reports in anesthesiology: their trend through 17 years

Area of Science:

• Anesthesiology
• Medical Literature Analysis

Background:

• Case reports are a fundamental descriptive study form in medical literature.
• Anesthesiology case reports are particularly valuable for signaling rare complications, adverse events, and anesthetic challenges in rare diseases.
• These reports serve as crucial alerts for anesthesiologists regarding potential unexpected events.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the publication and citation trends of anesthesiology case reports.
• To assess the citation frequency and placement of case reports within the anesthesiology literature.
• To understand the evolving role and impact of case reports in the field.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of case reports published in a mid-impact factor anesthesiology journal from 1980 to 1997.
• Utilized Science Citation Index (SCI) for citation tracking.
• Collected data included publication year, author count, citation frequency, citation type, and self-citation rates.

Main Results:

• Identified 637 case reports with 1946 citations.
• Publication and citation counts, including self-citations, showed an increasing trend, peaking in 1994-1995.
• Most case reports (90.4%) had four or fewer authors; 74.2% were cited within two years, but 34.7% were never cited. Original articles most frequently cited these case reports.

Conclusions:

• The trend in case report publication and citation reflects the importance of specific clinical situations over time.
• Citation analysis provides insights into the perceived significance and impact of anesthesiology case reports.
• Case reports remain a vital tool for disseminating critical clinical information in anesthesiology.