<p>Research Trends of Acupuncture Therapy on Knee Osteoarthritis from 2010 to 2019: A Bibliometric Analysis</p>

Abstract

Background Acupuncture has been widely applied to relieve knee osteoarthritis (KOA) in many countries. However, the bibliometric analysis of the global use of acupuncture on KOA is largely unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the current status and trends of the global use of acupuncture on KOA in recent 10 years by using CiteSpace (5.6.R3). Methods Publications regarding acupuncture therapy for treating KOA between 2010 and 2019 were extracted from the Web of Science database. CiteSpace was used to analyze the number of publications, countries, institutions, journals, authors, cited references and keywords by using standard bibliometric indicators. Results A total of 343 publications were retrieved from 2010 to 2019. The total number of publications continually increased over the past four years, and the most active journals, countries, institutions and authors in the field of acupuncture therapy on patients with KOA were identified. The Evid Based Complement Alternat Med (28) was the most prolific journal, and the Ann Intern Med (202) was the most cited journal. The most productive country and institution in this field was China (115) and University of York (18), respectively. Hugh Macpherson (18) was the most prolific author and Witt C ranked the first in the cited authors. In the ranking of frequency in cited reference, the first article was published by Scharf HP (54). The keyword of ‘randomized controlled trial’ ranked first for research developments with the highest citation burst (3.9486). Besides, there were three main frontiers in keywords for KOA research, including ‘research method, ‘age’ and ‘measure of intervention’. Conclusion The findings from this bibliometric study provide current status and trends in clinical research of acupuncture therapy on patients with KOA over the past ten years, which may help researchers identify hot topics and explore new directions for future research in this field.

Research Trends from 2010 to 2020 for Pain Treatment with Acupuncture: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…This trend was consistent with that observed in other research fields and can be well explained by the increased attention of researchers in this field. 14 …”

“…Consistent with previous reports, “low back pain” in the current study is the most common pain disorder that uses acupuncture as an intervention. 14 “Randomized controlled trial” was the most common research method with the strongest level of evidence to prove its efficacy. However, due to the particularity of the acupuncture operation, double-blinding is difficult to achieve; therefore, the placebo effect has attracted the attention of researchers, and this finding is consistent with our findings in the cited reference.…”

A Bibliometric Analysis of Research Trends of Acupuncture Therapy in the Treatment of Migraine from 2000 to 2020

“…CiteSpace was used to estimate the 405 institutions that made significant contributions in this field. Among the 405 nodes and 617 links, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (40) ranked first for publications, followed by Harvard University (33), and Technical University Munich (30). With respect to centrality, the top 3 institutions were Heidelberg University (0.12), Technical University Munich (0.10), and Ruhr University Bochum (0.09; Figure 3A; Table 4).…”

“…28 Recently, several global bibliometric analyses of general status and research trends in acupuncture therapy for pain, cancer, low back pain, insomnia have been conducted using CiteSpace and VOSviewer. [29][30][31][32] However, to the best of our knowledge, a bibliometric analysis of the use of acupuncture for migraine has not yet been performed.…”

In Reply: Research Trends of Acupuncture Therapy on Knee Osteoarthritis from 2010 to 2019: A Bibliometric Analysis (Letter from Luo et al) [Response To Letter]

“…First of all, we appreciate the Editor-in-Chief for giving us the opportunity to respond to comments from Luo et al Meanwhile, we also express our gratitude to Luo et al for their attention on our study entitled “Research Trends of Acupuncture Therapy on Knee Osteoarthritis from 2010 to 2019: A Bibliometric Analysis”. 1 Regarding the comments raised by Luo et al, hereby we provide a point-by-point response from the following aspects.…”