Laser Interstitial Thermotherapy ( LITT ) in epilepsy: A bibliometric and visual analysis

Chunbao Chen ^1,2* Xue Du ³

• ¹ Pidu District People's Hospital, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
• ² the 3RD Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, China
• ³ North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, Sichuan Province, China

Background: Laser interstitial thermotherapy (LITT) is a minimally invasive neurosurgical technique that has been rapidly developing in recent years and has demonstrated significant clinical potential in the treatment of epilepsy disorders. The objective of this study was to visualize and analyze, based on bibliometric methods, the scientific results and research trends in the application of LITT in the treatment of epilepsy. Methods: The Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database was searched in August 2024 for publications related to LITT in the field of epilepsy research. Data were analyzed primarily using CiteSpace and R software for bibliometric and visual analysis of country/region, institutions, authors, journals, references and keywords of publications in this field. Results: A total of 345 publications were retrieved from all publications related to this field, including articles (274, 79.42%) and reviews (71, 20.58%). The largest number of publications is USA (285, 82.61%), with University of Washington (41, 11.88%) as the research institution participating in the most publications. The most involved author in publication was Gross RE (14) and the most cited author was Kang JY (134). A total of 88 academic journals published relevant literature. The top 10 most frequent keywords include laser interstitial thermal therapy (176), laser ablation (172), epilepsy surgery (166), temporal lobe epilepsy (97), amygdalohippocampotomy (48), Children (43), Epilepsy (42), outcome (42), hypothalamic hamartoma (33), resection (27). Cluster analysis based on the co-occurrence of keywords resulted in 13 clusters, which identified the current state of research and future trends of LITT in the field of epilepsy research. Conclusion: LITT as a minimally invasive neurosurgical approach, may have potential clinical benefits in the field of epilepsy treatment as evidenced by the above bibliometric analysis which identifies that literature has been increasing and evolving although LITT may still be in its infancy and may lack sufficient authority for various indications. This article highlights the growth and development of LITT literature development through bibliometric analyses presented in this work above although more in-depth studies are needed to evaluate LITT's definitive indications which could be the subjects of further research.