Heart Transplantation: A Bibliometric Review From 1990-2021

As the rapidly aging population and the rising incidence of end-stage heart failure, extensive research has been conducted on heart transplantation (HTx). Bibliometrics harbors the function for describing the relationships of knowledge structures in different research fields and predicting the growth trend. The publications were searched and filtered based on the Web of Science core database. The target literature was visualized and analyzed by CiteSpace or VOSviewer. In total, 19,998 published papers were obtained. There is a wave-like growth in HTx development. Most advanced research results are concentrated in a few developed countries, while the interactions with developing countries are still in infancy. The United States occupies a strong dominant position among active countries on HTx. Early research hotpots mostly focused on primary disease, survival risk factors, and complications. In recent years, the research frontiers have shifted steadily to clinical evaluation of immunosuppressants and diagnosis of acute rejection, cardiac re-injury with coronavirus disease 2019, innovations in ventricular assist devices, and donation allocation strategies. The research directions of HTx are gradually shifting from observational studies to intervention research.