Research Trends of the Research and Development of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Therapy on Lumbar Disc Herniation: A Bibliometric Analysis

BACKGROUND: Acupuncture and moxibustion has been applied worldwide in the treatment of various pain diseases including lumbar disc herniation (LDH) and other pain, However, there has been no bibliometric analysis on this aspect in the past five years. Therefore, this study was carried out for finding research trends and fronts in this field using Citespace and VOSviewer. METHODS: Publications about acupuncture therapy for LDH were extracted from the Web of Science database and PubMed with an unlimited time frame. A bibliometric analysis and visualization of results was conducted using CiteSpace 6.1.R3 and VOSviewer 1.6.18 on the information of the annual publication, countries, journals, institutions, authors, references, and keywords. RESULTS: A total of 127 publications were included, and the number of publications had increased noticeably over the past 30 years and reached a peak in the past 3 years. The most productive country with the most publications was China, whose Medical University was the institution with the highest volume of publications. The most productive author was Chen Rixin, while the most-cited author was Kreiner DS. Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion was the journal with the most publications, and Spine Journal was the most frequently cited journal. In cited references, an article published in The New England Journal of Medicine by Deyo RA had the most citations and the highest centrality. Of the keywords, the five most frequently used keywords include lumbar disc herniation, acupuncture, low back pain, intervertebral disc displacement, and management. CONCLUSION: Acupuncture and moxibustion can help to relieve symptoms in patients. However, this field is in the early stages of development and requires more high-quality research studies and international collaborations. In addition, exploring the effectiveness and mechanism of acupuncture for LDH is the hot trend in the future.