A bibliometric analysis study of blood flow restriction using CiteSpace

[Purpose] To assess the current state-of-the-art and the prevailing trends regarding the global use of blood flow restriction (BFR) in the past 20 years. [Participants and Methods] We retrieved literature relating to BFR from 1999 to 2020 using Web of Science. We conducted a bibliometric analysis of countries/institutions, cited journals, authors/cited authors, cited references, and keywords using CiteSpace. An analysis of counts and centrality was used to examine publication output, countries/institutions, core journals, active authors, foundation references, hot topics, and frontiers. [Results] Seven hundred seventy five references were included and the total number of publications has been continually increasing over the investigated period. Representatives of important academic groups are the Japanese scholars from the University of Tokyo as represented by Takashi Abe. Jeremy Paul Loenneke’s article (centrality: 0.15) was the most representative and symbolic reference with the highest centrality. The three topics identified were intervention (intensity resistance exercise, IRE), physiology (ischemia and muscular function) and behavior (adaptation and increase). The four frontier topics were phosphorylation, reduction, low intensity and arterial occlusion. [Conclusion] This study provides an insight into BFR and offers valuable information for BFR researchers to identify new perspectives for potential cooperation with collaborators and their related cooperative institutions.