International performance of acupuncture for shoulder pain over more than four decades: a bibliometric study

This bibliometric study aims to reveal the current situation, cooperative teams, and future development trends of acupuncture for shoulder pain (SP).

The data source is the Web of Science Core Collection. The software programs used in this study are VOSviewer, Pajek, CiteSpace, Scimago Graphica, and Microsoft Excel. Co-occurrence analysis, descriptive statistical analysis, and burst keywords analysis are applied to analyze paper authors, institutions, countries or regions, keywords, and citations.

This study included 350 papers. In the first 30 years since 1976, the number of papers published was very limited. Since 2004, it has shown rapid growth momentum. High-yield countries and institutions were China (92) and Kyung Hee University (18), respectively. In terms of the cooperative relationship, the USA (centrality 0.34) and Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (centrality 0.15) play central roles in the team. The author Macpherson H ranked first with 10 published papers. Evidence Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (27) has published the most papers. The keywords are grouped into five clusters. The most recent burst keywords include stroke, electroacupuncture, diagnosis, disability, stimulation, mechanism, bee venom acupuncture, and systematic review.

In general, the research and international cooperation of acupuncture for SP will continue to emerge. Most of the current studies believe that acupuncture for SP is effective, and more studies will appear to verify its effectiveness. More well-designed trials will be introduced. More classification and detailed treatment methods for SP will be introduced to this research field.