Knowledge Mapping of Intracranial Aneurysm Clipping: A Bibliometric and Visualized Study (2001–2021)

Abstract

Intracranial aneurysms (IAs) are common cerebrovascular diseases with high rates of mortality and disability. With the development of endovascular treatment technologies, the treatment of intracranial aneurysms has gradually turned to endovascular treatment. However, due to the complex disease characteristics and technical challenges of intracranial aneurysm treatment, surgical clipping still plays an important role. However, there is no summary of the research status and future trends in IA clipping. Publications related to IA clipping from 2001 to 2021 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database. We conducted a bibliometric analysis and visualized study with the help of VOSviewer software and R program. We included 4104 articles from 90 countries. The volume of publications on IA clipping has generally increased. The United States, Japan and China were the countries that contributed the most. The University of California, San Francisco, Mayo Clinic, and the Barrow Neurological Institute are the main research institutions. World Neurosurgery and the Journal of Neurosurgery were the most popular journal and the most co-cited journal, respectively. These publications come from 12,506 authors among which Lawton MT, Spetzler RF, and Hernesniemi J published the most papers. Studies from the past 21 years on IA clipping can generally be divided into five parts: (1) the characteristics and technical difficulties of IA clipping; (2) perioperative management and imaging evaluation of IA clipping; (3) risk factors for subarachnoid hemorrhage caused by rupture of IA clippings; (4) outcomes, prognosis, and related clinical trials of IA clipping; and (5) endovascular management for IA clipping. "Occlusion," "experience," "internal carotid-artery," "intracranial anurysms," "management," and "subarachnoid hemorrhage" are the major keywords for future research hotspots. This bibliometric study clarified the global research status of IA clipping between 2001 and 2021. The United States contributed the most publications and citations, and World Neurosurgery and Journal of Neurosurgery can be considered landmark journals in this field. Studies regarding occlusion, experience, management, and subarachnoid hemorrhage will be the next research hotspots related to IA clipping in the future.