Mapping theme trends and recognizing research hot spots in the use of ultrasound in orthopaedics: a bibliometric analysis of global research.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: In the past decade, ultrasound has been increasingly used in the field of orthopaedics. The purpose of this study is to inspire future research in this field by analyzing the publications relating to ultrasound research in orthopaedics. METHODS: All relevant articles published between 2009 and 2020 were retrieved from Web of Science. Statistical Package for Social Science and GraphPad Prism 8 software were used to generate and analyse diagrams. VOSviewer software and CiteSpace were employed to visualize the research trends based on co-occurring keywords. Finally, we obtained information about relevant clinical randomized controlled trials (http//clinicaltrials.gov.com/). RESULTS: The United States had the most publications in this field and the most citations and the highest H-index. Furthermore, Skeletal Radiology published the most papers related to the use of ultrasound in orthopaedics, Ozcakar L published the most papers, and a study by Kwon, YM had the highest citation frequency. The keywords "MRI", "complication", "female" and "male" were identified as being indicative of emerging topics. CONCLUSIONS: While the contribution of United States to publications in this field has been substantial, the future contributions of China cannot be ignored. Moreover, it is hypothesized that diagnostic and epidemiological aspects may become hotspots.