Knowledge mapping and visualization analysis of pelvic organ prolapse repair with mesh from 2001 to 2021

Abstract

Aims: In recent decades, extensive attention has been paid to the application of mesh to repair pelvic floor defects. However, a large body of related literature has not been system summarized. The purpose of this study is to summarize and visualize the literature on pelvic organ prolapse (POP) repair with mesh using bibliometrics. Methods: Medical literature regarding POP repair with mesh were searched and obtained in the Web of Science™ Core (WoSCC) database from 2001 to 2021. Microsoft Excel 2020, CiteSpace and VOSviewer were used to conduct the bibliometric and knowledge-map analysis. Results: In the past 20 years, a total of 2,550 articles and reviews have been published in 35 journals, and the published and cited results show a growing trend. Cosson M and International Urogynecology Journal were the authors and journals with the highest output, respectively. The United States, France and the United Kingdom are among the top three countries/organizations in relevant publications in worldwide. 584 key words in the literature are divided into 8 clusters, which are mainly related to prolapse type, risk factors, surgical methods, imaging, quality of life and bioengineering. Using clinical research and tissue engineering technology to reduce mesh complications is the current hot spot in this field. Conclusion: Reasonable application of mesh and avoiding mesh complications are still the most concerned topics in POP research. Although clinical research, surgical improvement, biological mesh and bioengineering technology have shown promising results, it is still urgent to carry out clinical transformation application research.

Keywords: bibliometric analysis; citation; hotspots; mesh; pelvic organ prolapse.

FIGURE 1

Flow chart of scientific and bibliometric analysis. SCI-E = Science citation index expand; WOS = Web of science; IF = impact factor; H-index = high citation index.

FIGURE 2

The annual publication and annual citation trends related to POP repair with mesh in the past 20 years. (A) The red bars represents the annual publication per year, the blue line represents the trend of the proportion of annual publication in the total number of publications, and the specific proportion (%) of the annual publication in the total number of publications is indicated by the blue solid point. (B) The red bars represent the annual citation per year, the blue line represents the trend of the proportion of annual citation in the total number of citations, and the specific proportion (%) of the annual citation in the total number of citations is indicated by the blue solid point.

FIGURE 3

The top most productive of countries/regions and institutions related to POP repair with mesh in the past 20 years. (A) The top most productive countries/regions. The red bars represents the number of publications, and the red star represents the H-index of the corresponding country/region. (B)The top most productive institutions.The red bars represents the number of publications. (C) The cooperation network among the top 30 most productive countries/regions. (D) The cooperation network among the top 100 most productive institutions.

FIGURE 4

The density map of authors and co-cited authors related to POP repair with mesh in the past 20 years. (A) The spectral density map of the top 100 most productive authors. (B) The density map of the co-cited authors.In this cluster density map, authors with close relationship are allocated to one cluster with the same color.

FIGURE 5

The co-citation visualization network and timeline view of co-cited references related to POP repair with mesh in the past 20 years. (A) The co-citation visualization network of co-cited references. Each node represents an article or review, and each frame represents a cluster. The size of each node represent the numbers of co-citations. The labels of the clusters were also displayed adjacent to the frames. (B) The timeline view of r co-cited references.The node’s position on the horizontal axis represents the time when the reference first appeared, and the node’s size is positively correlated with the number of citations of the reference. The lines between the nodes represent co-cited relationships. This dark blue means close to 2001, while more yellow means close to 2021.

FIGURE 6

The distribution, co-occurrence network map and word cloud cluster diagram of keywords. (A) The distribution of keywords, the blue histograms represent occurrences, and the red histogram represents total link strength. (B) The co-occurrence network of keywords, minimum number of occurrences of keywords ≥20. Node size and color represents the number of keywords and cluster. Lines of different colors show that the 2 keywords appear in an article. (C–J) The word cloud cluster diagram of mechanism, type of prolapse, mesh complications, minimally invasive surgery, middle pelvic repair, anterior pelvic repair, quality of life, imaging examination, and bioengineering technology, respectively.

FIGURE 7

Top 25 keywords with strongest citation bursts. A blue line indicates the timeline, and the intervals in which bursts were found are indicated by red sections on the blue timeline, indicating the start year, the end year, and the burst duration.

FIGURE 8

Manual analysis and clustering of keywords. The red histograms represent the occurrences of the keyword: (A) Prolapse classification, (B) Risk factors, (C) Imaging progress, (D) Mesh surgery, (E) mesh complications, (F) quality of life, (G) tissue engineering, and (H) new research directions, respectively.