Worldwide Research Trends on Diabetic Foot Ulcers (2004-2020): Suggestions for Researchers

Abstract

Objectives: Diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is one of the devastating complications of diabetes. It has high mortality and disability rates. The number of research articles on DFUs has increased. This study was designed to explore the global trends and research hotspots of DFUs to benefit researchers in shaping future research directions.

Methods: Literatures relating to DFU from 2004 to 2020 were retrieved from the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-expanded) of Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). The current status of DFU research (including publications, journals, the performances of relevant countries, institutions, and authors and the research trends and hotspots of DFU) was analyzed with the WoSCC. VOSviewer v1.6.10.0 was utilised for cocitation, coauthorship, cooccurrence analyses, and bibliographic coupling.

Results: A total of 5869 publications on DFUs were retrieved. We performed a longitudinal review of publications over 17 years: 4500 articles and 865 review articles on DFUs published from 2004 to 2020 were analyzed. The total citation was 107,296. The USA (n = 1866), England (n = 606), and China (n = 599) were the three largest contributors. The University of Washington had the greatest number of publications within this time period (n = 103), and it had the most cooperative units and was in the core position in all research institutions, followed by the University of Manchester (n = 94) and the University of Miami (n = 92). Armstrong DG (91/1.69%) and Lavery LA (55/1.19%) should be regarded as scholars who have made outstanding contributions. The top journal with the greatest total link strength was Diabetes Care. Analysis showed that the global research hotspots of DFU focused on lower limb amputation, diabetic foot infection, and treatment and management of DFU. Studies on osteomyelitis, wound therapy and management, multidisciplinary integration and mechanism of DFUs, and its related diseases are the research fronts that should be closely watched in the future.

Conclusions: This study revealed the current research status and hotspots in the domain of DFU over the past 17 years, which can help researchers to further pinpoint potential perspectives on hot topics and research frontiers.

Figure 1

Retrieval strategy and number of publications.

Figure 2

Annual number of publications on DFUs from 2004 to 2020.

Figure 3

Geographical distribution of DFU-related research articles, 2004–2020.

Figure 4

(a) Top 20 journals of publications related to DFU research. (b) The top 20 research productive categories and the number of publications in each category. (c) The top 20 authors of publications. (d) The top 20 institutions with the highest impact and the number of publications for each institution.

Figure 5

Radar map of the top 20 research productive categories. Note: the radar map was drawn by a bioinformatics online tool (http://www.bioinformatics.com.cn/).

Figure 6

Top 20 countries of total citations.

Figure 7

Bibliographic coupling analysis of global research on DFU. (a) Mapping on the 195 included journals in the DFU area. (b) Mapping on the 579 institutions on DFU research. (c) Mapping on the 72 countries in this field. The line between the two nodes indicates the similarity relationship between the corresponding journals/institutions/countries.

Figure 8

Coauthorship and cocitation analyses of global research on DFU. (a) Mapping of coauthorship analysis amongst 556 identified authors on DFU research. (b) Mapping of 72 identified countries by coauthorship analysis on DFU research. (c) Mapping of coauthorship analysis amongst 579 institutions in the DFU field. (d) Mapping of 1000 included publications by cocitation analysis on DFU research. (e) Mapping on 1000 included journals by cocitation analysis in this field.

Figure 9

Cooccurrence analysis on DFU research. (a) Mapping of keywords on DFU research; the size of nodes represents the frequency, while the lines between nodes reflect the cooccurrence relationship. A total of 1000 included keywords were divided into five clusters: rehabilitation study (green), surgery study (sea blue), complication study (dark blue), molecular mechanism study (red), and clinical study (purple). (b) Distribution of keywords according to the frequency of appearance. The colour blue indicates the keywords appear earlier, whereas the colour yellow reflects the later occurrence.