A Scientometric Analysis and Visualization of Prosthetic Foot Research Work: 2000 to 2022

Abstract

This study aims to highlight recent research work on topics around prosthetic feet through a scientometric analysis and historical review. The most cited publications from the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science Core Collection database were identified and analyzed from 1 January 2000 to 31 October 2022. Original articles, reviews with full manuscripts, conference proceedings, early access documents, and meeting abstracts were included. A scientometric visualization analysis of the bibliometric information related to the publications, including the countries, institutions, journals, references, and keywords, was conducted. A total of 1827 publications met the search criteria in this study. The related publications grouped by year show an overall trend of increase during the two decades from 2000 to 2022. The United States is ranked first in terms of overall influence in this field (n = 774). The Northwestern University has published the most papers on prosthetic feet (n = 84). Prosthetics and Orthotics International has published the largest number of studies on prosthetic feet (n = 151). During recent years, a number of studies with citation bursts and burst keywords (e.g., diabetes, gait, pain, and sensor) have provided clues on the hotspots of prosthetic feet and prosthetic foot trends. The findings of this study are based on a comprehensive analysis of the literature and highlight the research topics on prosthetic feet that have been primarily explored. The data provide guidance to clinicians and researchers to further studies in this field.

Keywords: bibliometric analysis; lower-extremity amputation; prosthetic foot; scientometric analysis; visualization.

Figure 1

Flow chart of scientometric analysis. SCI-E, Science citation index expanded; SSCI, Social sciences citation index. * indicates one and more root words, referring to terms related to a prosthesis or prosthetic.

Figure 2

Related publications between 2000 and 2022.

Figure 3

Top ten countries with the highest number of collaborative prosthetic foot publications. PRC denotes the People’s Republic of China.

Figure 4

Keyword co-occurrence network. The colors indicate the keywords in different research fields; the size of the circle represents the importance of the keyword in this field; the link lines represent the connections among keywords.

Figure 5

Results of manual analysis of keywords: (A) population, (B) function, (C) psychology, and (D) technology.