A Bibliometric Analysis of Urologic Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome From 2000 to 2022

Abstract

Purpose: Urologic chronic pelvic pain syndrome has attracted a lot of attention in the new century, and an increasing number of relevant studies have been published. Therefore, we performed a bibliometric analysis of these publications, hoping to show the current research hotspots and future research trends.

Methods: The articles on were selected from the Web of Science Core Collection. Countries, authors, references and keywords in the field were visualized and analyzed using CiteSpace and VOSViewer software.

Results: A total of 1014 articles on urologic chronic pelvic pain syndrome were identified, with "chronic pelvic pain syndrome" being the most common keyword, with a strong association with "interstitial cystitis" and "chronic prostatitis". The hotspot of urologic chronic pelvic pain syndrome research has gradually shifted from chronic prostatitis / urologic chronic pelvic pain syndrome to cystitis/bladder pain syndrome over the past few years. Future research tends to focus on urologic chronic pelvic pain syndrome etiology, including oxidative stress and inflammation.

Conclusion: Research on urologic chronic pelvic pain syndrome is steadily growing. The United States has made the most prominent contribution in this area, and the share of China's contribution is expected to grow further. The etiology of urologic chronic pelvic pain syndrome, including inflammation and oxidative stress, have been the focus of current research and developmental trends in the future research.

Keywords: bibliometric analysis; chronic pelvic pain syndrome; chronic prostatitis; interstitial cystitis; mechanisms; treatments.

Figure 1

Flow chart for publications selection.

Figure 2

Trends of UCPPS publications over the past 22 years.

Figure 3

The top 10 most active countries/regions.

Figure 4

The co-authorship map of countries. The thickness of the connecting lines shows the frequency of cooperation, “total link strength” represents the number of papers produced by inter-country collaboration.

Figure 5

The co-authorship map of authors related to UCPPS. The size of the nodes indicates the number of documents published by the author in collaboration, and the thickness of the edges indicates the frequency of collaboration; the gradual change of color shows the passage of time.

Figure 6

Journals clustering through Bradford’s law. According to Bradford’s Law, the logarithm of the number of ranked journals (Source log(rank)) is the horizontal coordinate, and the corresponding number of papers (Articles) is the vertical coordinate.

Figure 7

(A) The network of co-cited references. (B) The network of co-cited references clusters. Cluster size in graph (A) indicates the number of citations, reflecting the degree of attention the clusters have received. The size of the nodes in the graph (B) reflects the centrality of the article, centrality depicts the node establishing a bridge between 2 unrelated nodes, with a high mediated centrality highlighting the importance of the node in the knowledge structure.

Figure 8

The dual-map overlay of journals on UCPPS. The dual-map overlay of journals demonstrated relationship distribution among journals, with citing journals on the left and cited journals on the right, and the colored paths between them suggesting the cited relationships.

Figure 9

Map of keywords clustering analysis related to UCPPS. The circle nodes represent keywords and the connecting lines represent co-occurrence relationship, the larger the circle node, the more frequent the keyword appears and the more representative of the domain hotspot.

Figure 10

Top 25 Keywords with the Strongest Citation Bursts. The blue line indicates the time interval, while the red line indicates the time period when a keyword had a burst.