Mapping Theme Trends and Research Frontiers in Dexmedetomidine Over Past Decade: A Bibliometric Analysis

Figures & data

Figure 1 PRISMA flowchart of the study.

Figure 2 Bibliometric analysis of publication outputs. (A) The number of annual publications. (B) The distribution of publications by countries/regions.

Table 1 The Top 10 Countries/Regions and Institutions Involved in Dexmedetomidine

Rank	Countries/Regions	Count	Centrality	Institutions	Count	Centrality	Country
1	China	2298	0.16	Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ	94	0.11	China
2	USA	1047	0.39	Sun Yat Sen Univ	87	0.14	China
3	India	395	0.07	Anhui Med Univ	85	0.05	China
4	South Korea	271	0	Nanjing Med Univ	79	0.03	China
5	Canada	198	0.11	Harvard Med Sch	78	0.21	USA
6	Egypt	194	0.03	Fudan Univ	74	0.04	China
7	Turkey	166	0.01	Capital Med Univ	66	0.02	China
8	Japan	160	0	Soochow Univ	65	0.03	China
9	Italy	152	0.09	Shandong Univ	62	0.04	China
10	England	150	0.14	China Med Univ	58	0.05	China

Figure 3 Cooperation between countries/regions on dexmedetomidine. (A) The cooperation networks between different countries/regions; (B) Countries/regions cross-chord charts; (C) Geography map of countries/regions for dexmedetomidine.

Figure 4 Cooperation between institutions on dexmedetomidine. (A) The cooperation networks between different institutions; (B) The top 10 institutions in count; (C) The top 10 institutions in centrality.

Table 2 The Top 10 Authors and Cited Authors in Dexmedetomidine

Rank	Author	Count	Centrality	H-index	Cited Author	Count	Centrality
1	Ji, Fuhai	39	0.05	23	Ebert, Thomas J.	409	0.1
2	Peng, Ke	31	0.01	30	Weerink, M. A. S.	398	0.06
3	Modir, Hesameddin	25	0	8	Venn, Robert M.	365	0.12
4	Ma, Daqing	22	0.07	62	Mason, Keira P.	357	0.1
5	Liu, Hong	22	0	29	Riker, Richard R.	310	0.02
6	Zhang, Wei	21	0.01	6	Talke, Pekka	300	0.08
7	Zhang, Jing	20	0.05	4	Pandharipande, Pratik P.	282	0.02
8	Liu, Yang	19	0.01	12	Sanders, Robert D.	279	0.03
9	Kamali, Alireza	19	0	4	Hall, James E.	261	0.03
10	Wang, Li	18	0.02	13	Shehabi, Yahya	258	0.04

Figure 5 Authors analysis on dexmedetomidine. (A) The cooperation networks between different authors; (B) The density visualization map of authors based on VOSviewer; (C) The cooperation networks between different cited authors.

Table 3 According to Bradford’s Law, the 1,186 Journals in Dexmedetomidine were Classified into Zones 1–3

Zone	Number of Journals	Number of Publications	Percentage
1	31	1822	33.2%
2	150	1853	33.8%
3	1005	1807	33.0%
Total	1186	5482	100%

Figure 6 Journals analysis on dexmedetomidine. (A) Journals output trends within the top 5 from 2014 to 2023; (B) Core journals by Bradford’s law.

Table 4 The Top 10 Cited Journals in Dexmedetomidine

Rank	Journal	Count	Centrality	IF (2022)	JCR (2022)
1	Anesthesiology	3442	1.12	8.8	Q1
2	Anesthesia & Analgesia	3215	0.63	5.9	Q1
3	British Journal of Anaesthesia	2897	0.28	9.8	Q1
4	Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica	1509	0.03	2.1	Q4
5	Anaesthesia	1480	0	10.7	Q1
6	Journal of Clinical Anesthesia	1398	0	6.7	Q1
7	PLoS One	1316	0	3.7	Q2
8	European Journal of Anaesthesiology	1303	0	3.6	Q2
9	Pediatric Anesthesia	784	0	1.7	Q4
10	Critical Care Medicine	661	0.01	8.8	Q1

Figure 7 Cited journals analysis on dexmedetomidine. (A) The network map of cited journals; (B) The top 10 cited journals in count; (C) The top 10 cited journals in centrality; (D) The dual-map overlay of citing of citation relationship of articles, with citing journal on the left, and the cited journal on the right. The colored path represented the citation relationship.

Table 5 The Top 10 Cited References in Dexmedetomidine

Rank	References	Count	Centrality	Publication Year
1	Weerink MAS, Struys MMRF, Hannivoort LN, Barends CRM, Absalom AR, Colin P. Clinical Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Dexmedetomidine. Clin Pharmacokinet. 2017;56(8):893-913. doi:10.1007/s40262-017-0507-7^Citation2	307	0.17	2017
2	Su X, Meng ZT, Wu XH, et al. Dexmedetomidine for prevention of delirium in elderly patients after non-cardiac surgery: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Lancet. 2016;388(10054):1893-1902. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(16)30580-3^Citation10	146	0.15	2016
3	Wang K, Wu M, Xu J, et al. Effects of dexmedetomidine on perioperative stress, inflammation, and immune function: systematic review and meta-analysis. Br J Anaesth. 2019;123(6):777-794. doi:10.1016/j.bja.2019.07.027^Citation4	103	0.07	2019
4	Djaiani G, Silverton N, Fedorko L, et al. Dexmedetomidine versus Propofol Sedation Reduces Delirium after Cardiac Surgery: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Anesthesiology. 2016;124(2):362-368. doi:10.1097/ALN.0000000000000951^Citation38	99	0.12	2016
5	Shehabi Y, Howe BD, Bellomo R, et al. Early Sedation with Dexmedetomidine in Critically Ill Patients. N Engl J Med. 2019;380(26):2506-2517. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1904710^Citation59	97	0.05	2019
6	Deiner S, Luo X, Lin HM, et al. Intraoperative Infusion of Dexmedetomidine for Prevention of Postoperative Delirium and Cognitive Dysfunction in Elderly Patients Undergoing Major Elective Noncardiac Surgery: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Surg. 2017;152(8):e171505. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2017.1505^Citation20	96	0.16	2017
7	Barr J, Fraser GL, Puntillo K, et al. Clinical practice guidelines for the management of pain, agitation, and delirium in adult patients in the intensive care unit. Crit Care Med. 2013;41(1):263-306. doi:10.1097/CCM.0b013e3182783b72^Citation39	92	0.06	2013
8	Mahmoud M, Mason KP. Dexmedetomidine: review, update, and future considerations of paediatric perioperative and periprocedural applications and limitations. Br J Anaesth. 2015;115(2):171-182. doi:10.1093/bja/aev226^Citation40	91	0.2	2015
9	Lee S. Dexmedetomidine: present and future directions. Korean J Anesthesiol. 2019;72(4):323-330. doi:10.4097/kja.19259^Citation41	89	0.05	2019
10	Duan X, 2018, BRIT J ANAESTH, V121, P384, DOI 10.1016/j.bja.2018.04.046^Citation42	80	0.06	2018

Figure 8 Cited references analysis on dexmedetomidine. (A) The network map of cited references; (B) The clustering of cited references; (C) The top 30 cited references with the strongest citation bursts.

Table 6 Top 10 Productive WOS Categories in Dexmedetomidine, Ranked by the Number of Publications

Rank	Web of Science Categories	Record Count
1	Anesthesiology	1245
2	Pharmacology Pharmacy	806
3	Medicine General Internal	587
4	Medicine Research Experimental	579
5	Veterinary Sciences	433
6	Clinical Neurology	293
7	Neurosciences	288
8	Surgery	279
9	Pediatrics	265
10	Critical Care Medicine	229

Figure 9 R bibliometrics-thematic evolution tool traces the progression of research themes in the realm of dexmedetomidine, spanning from 2014 to 2023.

Notes: The time segmentation points were established by R in 2018, 2020 and 2022.

Figure 10 Keywords analysis on dexmedetomidine. (A) The network map of the co-occurrence keywords; (B) Clusters of keywords; (C) Timeline view of keywords analysis; (D) The top 20 keywords with the strongest citation bursts.

Weerink MAS, Struys M, Hannivoort LN, Barends CRM, Absalom AR, Colin P. Clinical Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Dexmedetomidine. Clin. Pharmacokinet. 2017;56(8):893–913. doi:10.1007/s40262-017-0507-7

 PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Su X, Meng ZT, Wu XH, et al. Dexmedetomidine for prevention of delirium in elderly patients after non-cardiac surgery: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Lancet. 2016;388(10054):1893–1902. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(16)30580-3

 PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Wang K, Wu M, Xu J, et al. Effects of dexmedetomidine on perioperative stress, inflammation, and immune function: systematic review and meta-analysis. Br J Anaesth. 2019;123(6):777–794. doi:10.1016/j.bja.2019.07.027

 PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Djaiani G, Silverton N, Fedorko L, et al. Dexmedetomidine versus Propofol Sedation Reduces Delirium after Cardiac Surgery: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Anesthesiology. 2016;124(2):362–368. doi:10.1097/ALN.0000000000000951

 Google Scholar

Lewis K, Alshamsi F, Carayannopoulos KL, et al. Dexmedetomidine vs other sedatives in critically ill mechanically ventilated adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials. Intensive Care Med. 2022;48(7):811–840. doi:10.1007/s00134-022-06712-2

 PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Deiner S, Luo X, Lin HM, et al. Intraoperative infusion of dexmedetomidine for prevention of postoperative delirium and cognitive dysfunction in elderly patients undergoing major elective noncardiac surgery: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Surgery. 2017;152(8):e171505. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2017.1505

 PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Barr J, Fraser GL, Puntillo K, et al. Clinical practice guidelines for the management of pain, agitation, and delirium in adult patients in the intensive care unit. Crit Care Med. 2013;41(1):263–306. doi:10.1097/CCM.0b013e3182783b72

 Google Scholar

Mahmoud M, Mason KP. Dexmedetomidine: review, update, and future considerations of paediatric perioperative and periprocedural applications and limitations. Br J Anaesth. 2015;115(2):171–182. doi:10.1093/bja/aev226

 Google Scholar

Lee S. Dexmedetomidine: present and future directions. Korean J Anesthesiol. 2019;72(4):323–330. doi:10.4097/kja.19259

 Google Scholar

Duan X, 2018, BRIT J ANAESTH, V121, P384. doi:10.1016/j.bja.2018.04.046

 Google Scholar

Data Sharing Statement

The datasets used or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.