Publications in pediatric critical care medicine: Trends from Pakistan

Pediatric Critical Care Medicine (PCCM) is a relatively nascent yet rapidly evolving field in low-middle-income countries (LMIC) with an associated increase in scientific publications. The aim of this study is to analyze the characteristics of literature on PCCM research and education published from Pakistan. Methods We conducted bibliometric analysis of literature pertaining to PCCM published between January 2010 and December 2021 from Pakistan. A comprehensive search was conducted through Medline, Google Scholar, and PakMediNet (a Pakistani medical repository). The search strategy included the following free text and MeSH terms: “pediatric critical care medicine Pakistan” OR “Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Pakistan” OR “critically ill children Pakistan” OR “critically injured children Pakistan” OR “children Pakistan.” Data was extracted on a structured spreadsheet, and bibliometric analysis was performed. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Common keywords were extracted from bibliographic database files from PubMed and a frequency network was mapped using VOSviewer (version 1.6.18). Results The search strategy yielded a total of 7514 papers, out of which 146 articles were identified to meet the inclusion criteria. These were published in 51 journals (13.3 per year). Most of the studies were descriptive and related to clinical profiles and outcomes. Around 73.3% (n = 107) articles were published as original articles, 65.8% (n = 96) of the articles were published in PubMed-indexed journals and one-quarter of the articles 24% (n = 35) were published in locally indexed journals. 69.4% (n = 100) were published from five pediatric intensive care units in Karachi (the largest city) and 56% (n = 81) of the total publications were contributed by a single private sector hospital. The total citation count was 1072, with two articles receiving more than 50 citations. There was a linear trend with some skewing and an annual growth rate of >15%. Conclusion PCCM-related publications from Pakistan showed positive linear growth. Most publications were descriptive clinical studies with a paucity of multicenter studies, RCTs, and high-impact publications.