Artificial intelligence in anesthesiology: a bibliometric analysis

The application of artificial intelligence (AI) in anesthesiology has become increasingly widespread. However, no previous study has analyzed this field from the bibliometric analysis dimension. The objective of this paper was to assess the global research trends in AI in anesthesiology using bibliometric software. Literatures relevant to AI and anesthesiology were retrieved from the Web of Science until 10 April 2024 and were visualized and analyzed using Excel, CiteSpace, and VOSviewer. After screening, 491 studies were included in the final bibliometric analysis. The growth rate of publications, countries, institutions, authors, journals, literature co-citations, and keyword co-occurrences was computed. The number of publications increased annually since 2018, with the most significant contributions from the USA, China, and England. The top 3 institutions were Yuan Ze University, National Taiwan University, and Brunel University London. The top three journals were Anesthesia & Analgesia, BMC Anesthesiology, and the British Journal of Anaesthesia. The researches on the application of AI in predicting hypotension have been extensive and represented a hotspot and frontier. In terms of keyword co-occurrence cluster analysis, keywords were categorized into four clusters: ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia, postoperative pain and airway management, prediction, depth of anesthesia (DoA), and intraoperative drug infusion. This analysis provides a systematic analysis on the literature regarding the AI-related research in the field of anesthesiology, which may help researchers and anesthesiologists better understand the research trend of anesthesia-related AI.