title: Changes in Publication-Based Academic Interest in Local Anesthetics Over the Past 50 Years.
abstract: To present the history of changes in academic interest in local anesthetics quantitatively.
  
  
  
  The changes in publication-based academic interest in local anesthetics were assessed using information from the database of PubMed. The assessment was mostly based on the following indices: general popularity index (GPI), representing the proportion of articles on a drug relative to all articles in the field of regional anesthesia, and specific popularity index (SPI), representing the proportion of articles on a drug relative to all articles in one of the four forms of regional anesthesia: local anesthesia, spinal anesthesia, epidural anesthesia, and peripheral nerve blocks.
  
  
  
  The most important general feature of the changes in publication-based academic interest in local anesthetics for the past 50 years was the concentration of this interest on a very limited number of drugs. By 2010-2014, only three anesthetics demonstrated the GPI value above 4.0: bupivacaine (10.1), lidocaine (10.0), and ropivacaine (4.6). All other local anesthetics had GPI declining mostly to less than 1.0 (2010-2014). The rate of change in publication-based academic interest was very slow in both its increase and decline. The most profound change in publication-based academic interests was caused by the introduction of bupivacaine. During a 20-year period (from 1965-1969 to 1985-1989), bupivacaine's GPI increased from 1.3 to 12.9.
  
  
  
  A slowly developing concentration of publication-based academic interest on a very limited number of local anesthetics was the dominant feature related to this class of anesthetic agents.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Kamen V
authors.initials: KV
authors.lastname: Vlassakov
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: ikissin@bwh.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kissin
mesh_terms: D000765:Anesthesia, Conduction; D000767:Anesthesia, Epidural; D000775:Anesthesia, Spinal; D000779:Anesthetics, Local / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000266:history*; D015706:Bibliometrics / Q000266:history*; D035843:Biomedical Research; D002045:Bupivacaine; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D008012:Lidocaine; D009407:Nerve Block
chemical_list: D000779:Anesthetics, Local; D008012:Lidocaine; D002045:Bupivacaine
keywords: Epidural anesthesia; General popularity index; Local anesthesia; Nerve blocks; Regional anesthesia; Specific popularity index; Spinal anesthesia