Bibliometric analysis of metabolic surgery for type 2 diabetes: current status and future prospects

Metabolic surgery has become a powerful treatment for obese type 2 diabetes (T2DM). Experts have been devoting to the research of metabolic surgery in the treatment of T2DM. The debate continues, and there is no comprehensive statistical and intuitive analysis for it. To explore the current research status, the latest hotspots and the changing trend in this field, we conducted a bibliometric analysis. This paper made a bibliometric analysis based on the data source from Science Core Collection Network (WoSCC). Vosviewer v.1.6.10 software is used to construct a knowledge map. From 2011 to 2020, 1424 peer-reviewed papers on metabolic surgery for T2DM were retrieved. The United States contributed the most publications and gained global impact with the most citations. Obesity Surgery was the most prolific journal in this field. Prof. Schauer Philip R., Prof. Buchwald H. and Prof. Sjostrom L. were the most renowned experts in this aspect. The top cited references discussed the status of metabolic surgery for the treatment of T2DM worldwide and the importance of regular evaluation. The extracted keywords mainly formed three clusters: (1) research on the selection of different metabolic surgery methods; (2) possible mechanisms; (3) improvement of T2DM complications by metabolic surgery. Our study makes a comprehensive and objective analysis of metabolic surgery in obese patients with T2DM, providing valuable information for further clinical application and related scientific research. Researchers can quickly locate research hotspots in a large number of relevant literature.