Pressure ulcers in patients with diabetes: a bibliometrics analysis

Pressure ulcers (PU) refer to local tissue ulceration and necrosis caused by long-term compression and friction brought on by tissue ischemia and hypoxia. Diabetic wounds do not easily heal, and once a pressure ulceration occurs, it is difficult to deal with. The purpose of this study was to analyze the current research status of PUs in diabetic patients.

The Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E) database was searched with terms of "Pressure Ulcer" and "Diabetes". Citespace software was used to analyze the annual distribution of the number of target documents and the distribution of countries, institutions, journals, authors, and keywords used in these works.

In all, 1271 documents were retrieved, with a total citation frequency of 47,081, and an h-index of 101. The top 5 countries in terms of the number of publications were the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Australia, and the Netherlands; the top 5 countries in centrality were the Netherlands, the United States, Canada, Japan, and France. The institutions with the greatest number of publications were the University of Amsterdam, Cardiff University, The University of Washington, and the University of Manchester. The institutions with the highest centrality were the University of Amsterdam, the University of Groningen, the University of Washington, the University of Adelaide, Baylor College of Medicine, and Queensland University of Technology. The authors with a highest number of publications were Bus SA, Apelqvist J, and the International Working Group on the Diabetic Foot, and Hinchliffe RJ. Only 2 authors had a centrality score above 0.01. Journals such as Diabetes Metabolism Research and Reviews, Diabetes Care, and Journal of Wound Care showed considerable influence in this field. Keyword analysis indicated that the use of keywords in this field is not uniform, and the focus of research on PUs in diabetic patients lies the risk and management of foot ulcers.

There are few studies concerning PUs in patients with diabetes and little collaboration between authors. The current focus in this field is on the risk and management of foot ulcers.