2014 American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of the Neurological Surgeons (AANS/CNS) Section on Tumors Guidelines: Assessing their Impact on Brain Tumor Clinical Practice

INTRODUCTION: Clinical guidelines direct healthcare professionals towards evidence-based practices. Evaluating guideline impact can elucidate information penetration, relevance, effectiveness, and alignment with evolving medical knowledge and technological advancements. METHODS: Six tumor guideline categories were reviewed: low-grade glioma, newly diagnosed glioblastoma, progressive glioblastoma, metastatic brain tumors, vestibular schwannoma, and pituitary adenomas. Citation data were collected from Google Scholar and PubMed. Further online statistics, such as social media reach, and features in policy, news, and patents, were sourced from Altmetric. Online engagement was assessed through website and CNS+ mobile application visits. Data were normalized to time since publication. RESULTS: Metastatic Tumor guidelines (2019) had the highest PubMed citation rate at 26.1 per year, and webpage visits (29,100 page views 1/1/2019 - 9/30/2023. Notably, this guideline had two endorsement publications by partner societies, the Society of Neuro-Oncology (SNO) and American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), concerning antiepileptic prophylaxis and steroid use, and the greatest reach on X (19.7 mentions/year). Citation rates on Google Scholar was led by Vestibular Schwannoma (2018). Non-Functioning Pituitary Adenoma led Mendeley reads. News, patent, or policy publications were led by Low-Grade Glioma at 1.5/year. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that the AANS/CNS Section on Tumors guidelines go beyond citations in peer-reviewed publications to include patents, online engagement, and information dissemination to the public.