Global Trends and Hotspots in Endoscopic Discectomy: A Study Based on Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Objective: With the advancement of minimally invasive spine surgery, endoscopic discectomy (ED) has become a common technique for degenerative disease of the spine. The present study aimed to explore the knowledge structure, emerging trends, and future research hotspots in this field.

Methods: All relevant publications on ED from 2002 to 2021 were extracted from the Web of Science databases. Key bibliometric indicators, including countries/regions, institutions, authors, journals, references, and keywords were calculated and evaluated using VOSviewer and CiteSpace software.

Results: A total of 1,196 articles and reviews were included for analysis. The number of publications regarding ED increased yearly. From the quality and quantity viewpoint, China, South Korea, and the United States were the major contributors in this field. The most influential institution in the field of ED was Wooridul Spine Hospital. We identified 3,488 authors, among which Lee SH had the most significant number of papers, and Ruetten S was cocited most often. <World Neurosurgery was the journal with the most papers, and Spine was the most commonly cocited journal. Keywords were stratified into 4 clusters by VOSviewer software: cluster 1 (clinical outcomes of ED in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation); cluster 2 (surgical technique of percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy); cluster 3 (clinical outcomes of ED in the treatment of lumbar spinal stenosis); and cluster 4 (clinical outcomes of percutaneous endoscopic cervical discectomy). Several topics including lateral recess stenosis, spinal stenosis, and reoperation were considered as the next hotspot in ED research.

Conclusion: ED research has gained considerable attention over the last 2 decades. Our bibliometric findings illuminate the publication trends and research hotspots of the ED field, which may provide useful references for scholars and decision-makers interested in this field.

Keywords: Bibliometric; CiteSpace; Endoscopic discectomy; VOSviewer.

Fig. 1.

The flow diagram of literature search and analysis. WoSCC, Web of Science Core Collection; SCIE, Science Citation Index Expanded.

Fig. 2.

The global trend of annual publications and citations related to endoscopic discectomy research from 2002 to 2021.

Fig. 3.

(A) The annual number of publications in the top 10 countries/regions from 2002 to 2021. (B) The coauthorship map of countries/regions involved in percutaneous endoscopic discectomy research (generated by VOSviewer). (C) The coauthorship map of institutions involved in endoscopic discectomy research (generated by VOSviewer); The size of the node indicates the number of documents in the countries/regions or institutions, and the thickness of the line between the nodes indicates the collaborative intensity between countries/regions or institutions. (D) The top 10 most active funding agencies involved in endoscopic discectomy research.

Fig. 4.

The network visualization map of authors’ coauthorship (A) and cocitation (B). In the authors’ coauthorship map, the node’s size represents the number of papers published by the author, and the thickness of the line between the nodes indicates the collaborative intensity between authors. In authors’ cocitation map, the size of the node represents the citation frequency, and the line between 2 nodes means that both were cited by one author.

Fig. 5.

(A) The top 10 journals with the greatest number of publications. (B) The network visualization map of journal cocitation analysis using VOSviewer. The size of the node represents the citation frequency, and the line between 2 nodes means that both were cited by 1 journal. (C) A dual-map overlay of journals on endoscopic discectomy research was generated by CiteSpace. The labels represent different disciplines covered by the journals. The citing journals are on the left half, the cited journals are on the right half, and the colored path represents the citation relationship.

Fig. 6.

(A) The cocitation network map of references on endoscopic discectomy. The size of the node represents the citation frequency, and the line between 2 nodes means that both were cited by 1 paper. (B) The top 25 references with the highest burst value (generated by CiteSpace). The blue bars indicate the time interval, and the red bars indicate the active time.

Fig. 7.

(A) Keyword co-occurrence analysis on endoscopic discectomy research using the VOSviewer. The size of the node represents the occurrence times of keywords, the line between 2 nodes represents the co-occurrence of keywords, and different colors represent different clusters. (B) The top 25 keywords with the highest burst value (generated by CiteSpace). The blue bars indicate the time interval, and the red bars indicate the active time.