Bibliometrics or citation analysis, the statistical analysis of written
publications, is an increasingly popular approach for the assessment of scientific
activity. Using databases, a search of published manuscripts on the difficult airway
from January, 1981 to December, 2013 was conducted. 2,412 articles were identified
and analyzed as a group to assess the indicators of productivity, collaboration, and
impact over this time period. There has been an increase in the productivity over the
study period, with 37 manuscripts published between 1981 and 1990, and 1,268
between 2001 and 2010 (P <.001). The number of scientific papers on difficult airway
was higher than that of anesthesiology research in general.
Keywords: Bibliometrics, Difficult airway, Scopus, Web of Science.
