Research Trends of Percutaneous Endoscopic Lumbar Discectomy in the Treatment of Lumbar Disc Herniation Over the Past Decade: A Bibliometric Analysis

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the research trends of percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy in treating lumbar disc herniation using bibliometrics over the past ten years. METHODS: Relevant publications on the clinical application of percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy in lumbar disc herniation were searched in the Web of Science Core Collection. Subsequently, the characteristics of all these articles were collected. Visualizing data of annual publications, journals, cited journals, authors, cited authors, countries, institutions, keywords, and cited references was performed by using CiteSpace (6.1.R6). RESULTS: A total of 642 publications were extracted between 2013 and 2022. The number of publications peaked in the year 2020. The most prolific journal was World Neurosurgery (81), and Spine (597) as the cited journal was the most popular one. China (393) was the most prolific country, followed by South Korea (100). The institution with the most productivity was Tongji University (35). Yue Zhou (20) was the most prolific author, and Sebastian Ruetten (310) was the most cited author. The keyword “interlaminar” was top of research developments with the highest citation burst (8.69). “Lumbar disc herniation”, “surgical technique”, and “complication” were popular keywords. The surgical procedures and complications of percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy have been the hot topics of recent research. CONCLUSION: This study summarized the current situation and development trends of percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy clinical research in the form of visualization, and these findings may help researchers explore new directions in the future.