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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Neurol.
Sec. Neurotrauma
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1442145
This article is part of the Research Topic Exploring the Potential for Advancements in Spinal Neurosurgery: Revolutionizing Treatment Pathways and Improving Quality of Life View all 12 articles

Tracing the Evolving Dynamics and Research Hotspots of Spinal Cord Injury and Surgical Decompression From 1975 to 2024: A Bibliometric Analysis

Provisionally accepted
Siqiao Wang Siqiao Wang Wei Xu Wei Xu Jianjie Wang Jianjie Wang Xiao Hu Xiao Hu Zhourui Wu Zhourui Wu Chen Li Chen Li Zhihui Xiao Zhihui Xiao Bei Ma Bei Ma Liming Cheng Liming Cheng *
  • Shanghai Tongji Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Exploration of the benefits and timing of surgical decompression in spinal cord injury (SCI) has been a research hotspot. However, despite the higher volume and increasing emphasis on quality there remains no bibliometric view on SCI and surgical decompression. In this study, we aimed to perform bibliometric analysis to reveal the core countries, affiliations, journals, authors, and developmental trends in SCI and surgical decompression across the past 50 years.Articles and reviews were retrieved from web of science core collection between 1975 and 2024.The bibliometrix package in R was used for data analysis and visualizing.A total of 8,688 documents were investigated, indicating an ascending trend in annual publications. The USA and China played as the leaders in scientific productivity. The University of Toronto led in institutional productions. Core authors, such as Michael G Fehlings, showed high productivity, and occasional authors showed widespread interests. Core journals like Spine and Spinal Cord served as beacons in this field. The interaction of core authors and international collaboration accentuated the cross-disciplinary feature of the field. Prominent documents emphasized the clinical significance of early decompression in 24 hours post SCI.Based on comprehensive bibliometric analysis and literature review, we identified the hotspots and future directions of this field: (1) further investigation into the molecular and cellular mechanisms to provide pre-clinical evidence for biological effects of early surgical decompression in SCI animal models; (2) further evaluation and validation of the optimal time window of surgical decompression based on large cohort, considering the inherent heterogeneity of subpopulations in complicated immune responses post SCI; (3) further exploration on the benefits of early decompression on the neurological, functional, and clinical outcomes in acute SCI; (4) evaluation of the optimal surgical methods and related outcomes; (5) applications of artificial intelligence-based technologies in spinal surgical decompression.

    Keywords: spinal cord injury, Surgical Decompression, functional recovery, bibliometric analysis, Bibliometrix

    Received: 01 Jun 2024; Accepted: 23 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wang, Xu, Wang, Hu, Wu, Li, Xiao, Ma and Cheng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Liming Cheng, Shanghai Tongji Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

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