Knowledge Graph of Endoscopic Techniques Applied to the Treatment of Lumbar Disc Herniation: A Bibliometric Analysis.

Study design: Bibliometric analysis.

Objective: This study explored the current research status, hotspots, and trends in the application of endoscopic techniques for treating lumbar disc herniation (LDH).

Background: Endoscopic techniques are widely used to treat LDH, but there are no bibliometric studies on endoscopic technology and LDH.

Methods: The Web of Science Core Collection database was used as the data source. Based on the principles of bibliometrics, we apply VOSviewer and CiteSpace software to conduct the data statistics and visual analysis.

Results: A total of 965 studies were included, with 11893 citations (12.32 per study). The top 3 countries with the largest number of papers published are China (529), South Korea (164), and the United States (108). Yong Ahn and Jin-Sung Kim are prolific authors in this field. Representative academic journals are World Neuroscience, Pain Physician, and BioMed Research International. The results of keyword cooccurrence analysis indicate that the research topics in this field in the past decade have mainly focused on microdiscectomy, complications, percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy, decompression, and the learning curve. Keyword burst analysis suggested that endoscopic drug injection and the identification of risk factors for LDH are the frontiers and trends for future research.

Conclusion: The application of endoscopic techniques for LDH has received widespread attention from researchers, and research in this field has focused on percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy, endoscopic decompression, complications, and the learning curve of endoscopic techniques. Future research trends will focus on the efficacy of endoscopic drug injection therapy for LDH and the identification of risk factors for LDH treatment failure.