Patient Blood Management in Anesthesia: An Analysis of Anesthesiology Journals

Objective: Implementation of patient blood management has been demonstrated to improve patient outcomes and reduce the need for allogeneic blood transfusions in elective procedures. Herein, we aimed to analyze the publication trends on patient blood management between 2010 and 2022 to evaluate the level of significance and the relevance of anesthesiology journals associated to the topic of patient blood management. Methods: The search strategy included the keywords “patient blood management, anemia, coagulopathy, coagulation, viscoelastic tests, antifibrinolytic, transfusion and cell salvage” between 2010 and 2022. The trend analysis included the rate of publications in anesthesiology journals, origin country of publications and the contributors. Results: Between 2010 and 2022, 102327 articles were published on patient blood management. Among these articles 2693 (2.63%) were published in anesthesiology journals. Ninety-seven thousand eight hundred twenty-seven articles published in the 54 anesthesiology journals were included in this study. The rate of patient blood management publications was 2.75% in these journals. Conclusion: Anesthesiologists have demonstrated a commendable level of interest in patient blood management, as evidenced by the fact that 2.63% of studies related to patient blood management were published in journals dedicated to anesthesiology. Two point seventy five percent of recent studies published in anesthesiology journals are directly associated with patient blood management, which underscores the importance and relevance of this subject in the field of anesthesiology. The significance of anesthesiologists’ role on this subject is truly remarkable, based on the trend of patient blood management publications in anesthesiology journals in the recent decade. Keywords: Patient blood management, perioperative care, perioperative period, blood transfusion, journal article