Bibliometric analysis of the inflammation expression after spinal cord injury: current research status and emerging frontiers

Abstract

Study design: Bibliometric analysis.

Objective: To analyze literature on inflammatory expression following spinal cord injury, highlighting development trends, current research status, and potential emerging frontiers.

Setting: Not applicable.

Methods: Articles were retrieved using terms related to spinal cord injury and inflammatory responses from the Web of Science Core Collection, covering January 1, 1980, to May 23, 2024. Tools like CiteSpace and VOSviewer assessed the research landscape, evaluating core authors, journals, and contributing countries. Keyword co-occurrence analyses identified research trends.

Results: A total of 2504 articles were retrieved, showing a consistent increase in publications. The Journal of Neurotrauma had the highest publication volume and influence. The most prolific author was Cuzzocrea S, with Popovich PG having the highest H-index. China led in the number of publications, followed closely by the United States, which had the highest impact and extensive international collaboration. Research mainly focused on nerve function recovery, glial scar formation, and oxidative stress. Future research is expected to investigate cellular autophagy, vesicular transport, and related signaling pathways.

Conclusion: The growing interest in inflammation caused by spinal cord injury is evident, with current research focusing on oxidative stress, glial scar, and neurological recovery. Future directions include exploring autophagy and extracellular vesicles for new therapies. Interdisciplinary research and extensive clinical trials are essential for validating new treatments. Biomarker discovery is crucial for diagnosis and monitoring, while understanding autophagy and signaling pathways is vital for drug development. Global cooperation is needed to accelerate the application of scientific findings, improving spinal cord injury treatment.

Fig. 1. The publication details, volumes, and leading journals are summarized as follows.

A Summary of general details of publications; B Annual publication volume and annual cumulative publication volume; C Top 10 journals by publication volume; D Top 5 journals bycumulative publication growth.

Fig. 2. The top authors by publication volume, H-index impact, production over time, and cluster analysis are as follows.

A Top 10 authors by publication volume; B Top 10 authors by H-index with the highest local impact; C Top 10 authors’ production over time; D Author cluster analysis.

Fig. 3. The top affiliations and countries by publication volume and number of citations are as follows.

A Top 10 affiliations by publication volume; B Institution cooperation analysis; C National cooperation analysis; D Top 10 most cited countries.

Fig. 4. The analysis of keywords by temporal distribution, clustering, trend topics, and citation bursts is as follows.

A Temporal distribution analysis of keywords; B Clustering analysis of keywords; C Analysis of trend topics; D Strongest citation bursts analysis of keywords.

Fig. 5

Hotspots and focal point of the research.