As one of several refractive surgeries, Implant Collamer Lens (ICL) surgery offers stable biocompatibility and consistent, high-quality visual outcomes. ICL has become an effective complement to corneal refractive surgery, gradually becoming one of the mainstream methods for correcting refractive errors. This study employs bibliometric methods to analyze research on ICL surgery to understand the progress, hotspots, and potential future trends in this field.
This study performed a bibliometric analysis of all ICL-related articles collected from the Web of Science Core Collection database between January 1st, 1996, and December 31st, 2023. The CiteSpace 6.2.R4 tool, Excel and the Web of Science website were used to analyze data by country, institution, keywords, and clusters of keywords. Additionally, an in-depth interpretation and analysis were conducted on the field’s high-impact articles.
Since the first clinical application report of ICL, there have been a total of 875 studies. The number of papers published annually has shown an overall increasing trend. Studies published from China are the most numerous, accounting for 29.14% (
Research on ICL has grown since its clinical introduction, with the advent of the central hole ICL sparking a surge in recent hotspots, particularly in China. Current hotpots in the field of ICL surgery are “visual quality,” “ICL implantation,” “vector analysis,” “axial length,” “evo ICL,” “ICL v4c,” and “ICL.” ICL surgery research trends have evolved from implantation techniques to biological parameters associated with ICL surgery and the benefits of new ICL designs.