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. 2023 Jun 30;12(6):767-779.
doi: 10.21037/gs-22-540. Epub 2023 Jun 12.

Bibliometric analysis of robotic surgery research in breast cancer conducted between 2008 and 2022

Hong-Fang Ma  1 , Yi Lu  2 , Jun Shen  2
Affiliations

Bibliometric analysis of robotic surgery research in breast cancer conducted between 2008 and 2022

Hong-Fang Ma et al. Gland Surg. .

Abstract

Background: To carry out a bibliometric analysis of robotic surgery research in the field of breast cancer conducted between 2008 and 2022 and to evaluate the status and trends in the field.

Methods: A systematic search was undertaken in the Web of Science (WoS) for published articles related to surgical robots and breast cancer. R and VOSviewer software were used to carry out a quantitative analysis to explore the trend of annual publication volume and the cooperative relationship between countries, institutions, authors, and keywords.

Results: A total of 177 publications were retrieved, 79.66% of which were published from 2016 to 2022, and most were conducted in the United States (US), China, and South Korea. Articles from the US had the most frequent international cooperation. A tally of institutional publications showed that Yonsei University (YONSEI UNIV; Korea) had produced the most publications. The author with the most published papers was Lee of YONSEI UNIV. The most accepted journal was the Asian Journal of Surgery. Keyword co-occurrence analysis showed that current research hotspots were mainly focused on nipple-conserving mastectomy and breast reconstruction, and breast-conserving and nipple-conserving mastectomy may be future research hotspots.

Conclusions: The annual incidence of robotic surgery and breast cancer is gradually increasing. The predominant countries conducting research in this field include the US, China, and South Korea, and the institutions are mainly distributed in universities and hospitals. Nipple-conserving mastectomy and breast reconstruction may be the current research hotspots, and breast-conserving mastectomy and minimally invasive surgery may represent hot research areas in the future. These findings may help scholars who are committed to the application of surgical robots to breast cancer to better understand the current research status and trends.

Keywords: Bibliometrics; breast cancer; research; surgical robotics.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://gs.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/gs-22-540/coif). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Graph of annual and cumulative publications from the year of 2008 to 2022 on robotic surgery research in breast cancer.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The number of articles relating to robotic surgery research in breast cancer with authors from different countries or regions. (A) The trend of publications in different countries or regions. (B) The ranked top 20 countries or regions from high to low.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Network map of cooperation between different countries based on analysis relating to robotic surgery research in breast cancer. (A) The network map from 2008 to 2015. (B) The network map from 2016 to 2022.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The top 20 institutions with published articles relating to robotic surgery research in breast cancer ranked from high to low.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Network map of cooperation between different institutions based on analysis relating to robotic surgery research in breast cancer. (A) The network map from 2008 to 2015. (B) The network map from 2016 to 2022. CHONBUK NATL UNIV, Chonbuk National University; SUNGKYUNKWAN UNIV, Sungkyunkwan University; UNIV ULSAN, University of Ulsan; YONSEI UNIV, Yonsei University; CHANG GUNG UNIV, Chang Gung University; EUROPEAN INST ONCOL IRCCS, European Institute of Oncology IRCCS; DUKE UNIV, Duke University; UNIV HOSP, United Hospitals (Taiwan); CHANGHUA CHRISTIAN HOSP, Changhua Christian Hospital; IMPERIAL COLL LONDON, Imperial College London; COLUMBIA UNIV, Columbia University; JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV, Johns Hopkins University; EINDHOVEN UNIV TECHNOL, Eindhoven University of Technology; TECH UNIV MUNICH, Technical University of Munich; UNIV LAVAL CTR RECH CANC, Laval University Cancer Research Center; UNIV CALIF SAN FRANCISCO, United States University of California, San Francisco; BROWN UNIV, Brown University.
Figure 6
Figure 6
The top 20 authors who published articles relating to robotic surgery research in breast cancer ranked from high to low.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Network map of cooperation among researchers based on analysis relating to robotic surgery research in breast cancer. (A) The network map from 2008 to 2015. (B) The network map from 2016 to 2022.
Figure 8
Figure 8
The top 20 keywords with the highest frequency from 2008 to 2022.
Figure 9
Figure 9
The co-occurrence network of the top 50 keywords with the highest frequency.
Figure 10
Figure 10
The temporal distribution along with the keyword contents of the topics. (A) The cumulative numbers of published articles relating to robotic surgery research in breast cancer with the top 10 keywords. (B) The annual numbers of published articles relating to robotic surgery research in breast cancer with the top 10 keywords.
Figure 11
Figure 11
The hotspot pattern in keywords. The black line indicates the specific year when the frequencies of keywords appeared more than 5 times. The larger the circle, the higher the total frequency of the keyword.
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