Research hotspots and trends in the treatment of postoperative pain with ropivacaine: A bibliometric analysis from 2003 to 2022.

Background: The aim of this study is to explore the current study status and progression of the effects of ropivacaine in local analgesia by using bibliometric methods.

Methods: Published articles related to the treatment of postoperative pain with ropivacaine from 2003 to 2022 were retrieved from the Web of Science database. Detailed information such as authors, keywords, journals, countries, institutions and references were analyzed by bibliometric methods and visualized by VOSviewer.

Results: A total of 1150 articles published in the treatment of postoperative pain with ropivacaine were included in the bibliometric analysis. From 2003 to 2022, the number of articles was on the rise and increased rapidly after 2018. The United States published the highest number of articles and Ilfeld ranked first in the number of papers (35) and citation frequency (1670). Journal of Anesthesiology had the highest average number of citations per article (89.43). There is a close cooperation among countries especially centering China and the United States at their core, universities are the main institutions in publishing articles. The most cited literature was published by Knudsen whose study major in finding out the effects of ropivacaine and bupivacaine to the central nervous system. Among the top 10 high frequency keywords, ropirvacaine and postoperative anesthesia appeared most frequently.

Conclusion: The application of ropivacaine to postoperative anesthesia attracts growing interest from the scholars all over the world and was the future research hotspot in treating postoperative pain.