ABSTRACT
Context: The quantity and quality of publications by an institution is an indicator of its contribution towards the development of science
Aims: to examine the volume and visibility of publications by the anesthesia department of King Fahd Hospital of the University [KFHU], Dammam, Saudi Arabia, in the last 30 years
Settings and Design: Publications by members of the anesthesia department in the last three decades were retrieved from the databases of PubMed and Scopus
Materials and Methods: For each article retrieved, the journal and time of publication, the type of the article and the authors were analyzed. The visibility of KFHU publications in leading anesthesia journals is related to the number of citations each article received. Since websites publish only citation reports for the years 1999 to 2011, we analyzed visibility for the years 1998 to 2008. The visibility was compared to the general Saudi anesthesia publications and those of some other Arab countries. It was also related to global indices
Statistical Analysis Used: Two visibility indices were used in the present study. The first relates the average citations per articles in the years following publication to the average global citations per anesthesia articles. The second relates the average citations per article in the 3 years following publication to the impact of the journal of publication. The h-index was used as a measure of both volume and visibility
Results: Anesthesiologists from KFHU published 151 documents in the years 1983-2013, with a marked increase in the last 6 years. The articles published from the year 1998-2008 received citations similar to the journals where it was published with visibility index of one. The average citations per article were 11.75 which are close to the global anesthesia citations per article [12.2]
Conclusions: KFHU anesthesia publications have increased recently. Its impact and visibility are similar to global indices
Subject(s)
Publications , BibliometricsABSTRACT
To compare the three common methods of endotracheal tube cuff inflation [sealing pressure, precise standard pressure or finger estimation] regarding the effective tracheal seal and the incidence of post-intubation airway complications. Seventy-five adult patients scheduled for N 2 O free general anesthesia were enrolled in this study. After induction of anesthesia, endotracheal tubes size 7.5 mm for female and 8.0 mm for male were used. Patients were randomly assigned into one of three groups. Control group [n=25], the cuff was inflated to a pressure of 25 cm H 2 O; sealing group [n=25], the cuff was inflated to prevent air leaks at airway pressure of 20 cm H 2 O and finger group [n=25], the cuff was inflated using finger estimation. Tracheal leaks, incidence of sore throat, hoarseness and dysphagia were tested. Although cuff pressure was significantly low in the sealing group compared to the control group [P<0.001], the incidence of sore throat was similar in both groups. On the other hand, cuff pressure as well as the incidence of sore throat were significantly higher in the finger group compared to both the control and the sealing group [P<0.001 and P=0.008]. The incidence of dysphagia and hoarseness were similar in the three groups. None of the patients in the three groups developed air leak around the endotracheal tube cuff. In N 2 O, free anesthesia sealing cuff pressure is an easy, undemanding and safe alternative to the standard technique, regarding effective sealing and low incidence of sore throat