SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Surg.
Sec. Orthopedic Surgery
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsurg.2025.1564923
This article is part of the Research TopicDiagnosis and Treatment in Age-related musculoskeletal disordersView all 6 articles
Research hotspots and trends of sarcopenia in orthopaedic surgery: A bibliometric analysis from 2003 to 2023
Provisionally accepted
Ruijiang Li1,2*
Yufeng Ge1,2
Yixiao Chen1,2
Gang Liu1,2Feng Gao1,2Chao Tu1,2
Ting Li1,2
Ling Wang1,2Minghui Yang1,2*
Xinbao Wu1,2- 1Beijing Jishuitan Hospital, Beijing, China
- 2National Center for Orthopaedics, Beijing, China, Beijing, China
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Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the current bibliometric characteristics, progress, and hotspots of cross-sectional research on orthopaedic surgery and sarcopenia over the past two decades.: Publications related to sarcopenia and orthopaedic surgery, published between January 2003 and December 2023, were screened the Web of Science Core Collection. The bibliometric analysis and data visualization processes-including assessments of authors, countries, institutions, keywords, and references-were conducted with Microsoft Office Excel, VOSviewer, Citespace, and the Bibliometrix (R package). Results: A total of 1,815 documents authored by 8,592 researchers from 2,376 organizations across 77 countries and published in 285 journals were identified. The United States led in both publication volume and total citations. The University of Melbourne had the highest number of publications, while Osteoporosis International emerged as the core journal in this field, with the highest number of publications, citations, and H-index. Cawthon PM was the most influential author, with 21 publications and 3,271 citations. Keywords were categorized into four clusters: Cluster 1 (epidemiology and pathophysiology of sarcopenia), Cluster 2 (clinical outcomes), Cluster 3 (management), and Cluster 4 (physical function). The most common keywords were mainly about 'sarcopenia', 'body composition', 'muscle strength', 'hip fracture' and 'mortality'. Conclusions: The bibliometric results indicated a steady and rapid increase in the field of sarcopenia and orthopaedic surgery from 2003 to 2023. Previous research has predominantly focused on the epidemiology, pathophysiology, clinical outcomes, physical function, and management of sarcopenia. Future research in the intersection of sarcopenia and orthopaedic surgery is likely to delve into the molecular mechanisms of muscle-bone crosstalk, and multidisciplinary management of elderly sarcopenic patients in the orthopaedic field.
Keywords: Sarcopenia, Osteoporosis, bibliometric analysis, VOSviewer, Citespace
Received: 06 Feb 2025; Accepted: 21 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Ge, Chen, Liu, Gao, Tu, Li, Wang, Yang and Wu. 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:
Ruijiang Li, Beijing Jishuitan Hospital, Beijing, China
Minghui Yang, Beijing Jishuitan Hospital, Beijing, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.