A Decade of Post-Intensive Care Syndrome: A Bibliometric Network Analysis

Abstract

Background and Objectives: In 2012, the umbrella term post-intensive care syndrome (PICS) was introduced to capture functional long-term impairments of survivors of critical illness. We present a bibliometric network analysis of the PICS research field. Materials and Methods: The Web of Science core database was searched for articles published in 2012 or later using ‘post-intensive care syndrome’ and variant spellings. Using VOSviewer, we computed co-authorship networks of countries, institutions, and authors, as well as keyword co-occurrence networks. We determined each country’s relative research effort and Category Normalized Citation Index over time and analyzed the 100 most-cited articles with respect to article type, country of origin, and publishing journal. Results: Our search yielded 379 articles, of which 373 were analyzed. Annual PICS research output increased from 11 (2012) to 95 articles (2020). Most PICS research originates from the US, followed by England, Australia, the Netherlands, and Germany. We found various collaborations between countries, institutions, and authors, with recent collaborative networks of English and Australian institutions. Article keywords cover aspects of cognitive, mental health, and physical impairments, and more recently, COVID-19. Only a few keywords and articles pertained to PICS prevention and treatment. Conclusions: Our analysis of Web of Science-indexed PICS articles highlights the stark increase in PICS research output in recent years, primarily originating from US- and Europe-based authors and institutions. Despite the research field’s growth, knowledge gaps with respect to PICS prevention and treatment remain.

Physical recovery across care pathways up to 12 months after hospitalization for COVID-19: A multicenter prospective cohort study (CO-FLOW)

“…In the last decade there has been growing attention for the functional long-term impairments among survivors of ICU admission, captured under the term post-intensive care syndrome (PICS). 39 Our patients that had been admitted to the ICU more frequently required more intensive rehabilitation (Med- and SNF-rehab). Not surprisingly, these patients had more impaired physical function at 3 months, but at 12 months these differences caught up.…”

Mobile Applications for Longitudinal Data Collection: Web-based Survey Study of Former Intensive Care Patients

“…Patients are still in the hospital and have not yet fully recovered from their crucial illness. Transferring the results to other user groups should also be done with caution due to the possible symptomatic impairment of patients in different areas of life (11). Other target groups for similar mHealth apps without an intensive care unit stay can achieve very different results.…”

Psychosoziale Betreuung auf der Intensivstation

“…Intensivmedizinische Behandlungsoptionen haben sich in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten zunehmend verbessert. Die Anzahl und Komplexität der behandelten Patient*innen sind nicht zuletzt pandemiebedingt stetig gestiegen [1,2,3,4]. Kritische Erkrankungen und deren Behandlungen sind jedoch für die meisten Patient*innen und ihre Angehörigen mit einer Vielzahl von psychischen und physischen Belastungen und daraus resultierenden Beeinträchtigungen der Lebensqualität verbunden [5,6,7,8,9,10,11].…”