Clinical Research Advancement in Expanding Lung Transplant Centers: Inspiration from Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Currently, there are leading centers in lung transplantation and emerging centers in developing nations, such as in Asia and South America. We perform a primary analysis on the developing trend across regions. We identified publications and records of lung transplantation including adult and pediatric from 1946 onwards. Analysis mapping by VosViewer version 1.6.11. Lung transplantation publications increased to 2034 in 2018, 7.34% of total transplantation papers. There were two peaks of research volumes, in 1968-1970 and 1992-1994 (Fig. 1) with emerging centers. In average, it took 16.4±9.8 years for the clinical team to publish the case series study results. Moreover, it took 18.7±14 years for the developing a case-control or larger scale of clinical studies. Some centers established after 1980s have performed clinical studies based on experience gained from other centers or with transferring of team leaders. Top authors with publications showed in Fig.2, whose affiliation comparable with the development of prestigious centers. For the clinical research, there has been an increasing trend of focus on pulmonary artery disease from China and living-donor lobe lung transplantation from Japan. There have been more reports from Asian region on preoperative care and complication management but limited data of EVLP due to economical and practical concern. Centers in Asian are emerging and developing in 1990s referenced from western accumulated experience. However, distinct characters have also been recognized in Asian region, which calls for cooperation across centers and regions.