Global Research Trends and Hotspots in Lateral Epicondylitis During the Past 30 Years: A Bibliometric and Visualization Study

BACKGROUND: Lateral epicondylitis is a common clinical disease characterized by lateral elbow pain, seriously affecting patients’ daily life and work. There is a lack of comprehensive and systematic visual analysis of the literature in this field. Therefore, we analyzed the literature on lateral epicondylitis in the past 30 years and summarized the hot spots and frontiers of research in this field to provide ideas and references for subsequent researchers. MATERIAL/METHODS: CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and R-Bibliometrix tools were primarily used to collect, visualize, and analyze data from the literature on lateral epicondylitis in the Web of Science database’s core dataset from 1990 to 2022. RESULTS: There were altogether 1556 items in the literature. Recent years have seen a noticeable development trend in the volume of pertinent literature that is published annually. The United States took first place with 447 papers. Univ Queensland ranked first with 42 papers. Vicenzino B, an academic at the University of Queensland, Australia, ranked first, with 48 papers. CONCLUSIONS: Yearly volumes and forecasts suggest the USA will continue to lead the world in publications on lateral epicondylitis, with extensive collaboration among authors. More collaboration is still needed in various nations and organizations, according to an analysis of the research literature from the previous 30 years. The mechanism of action of different injectable preparations, such as corticosteroids for the treatment of LE is still unclear, as well as the cellular transduction pathways through which PRP affects LE.