[Status quo of ED-related studies in China: A bibliometric analysis]

To summarize and visualize the status quo, future hotspots and development trend of ED-related researches in China through bibliometric analysis.

We searched the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) and the database of Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) for ED-related studies published in China from January 1, 2010 to August 14, 2023. Using the CiteSpace and VOSviewer softwares, we bibliometrically analyzed and visualized the related journals, regions, institutions, authors, key words, co-citations and other indexes of the identified studies.

A total of 2,465 ED-related studies were retrieved, with an increasing number of publications year by year, relatively more in the southeast region, with Sun Yat-sen University ranking the first in the number of published articles (n = 169), LIU Jihong (n = 73), WANG Tao (n = 71) and JIANG Rui (n = 49) as the top three prolific core authors. The first two Chinese journals with the most ED-related publications were Chinese Journal of Andrology (n = 320) and Journal of Sexual Medicine (n = 128), and the latter was also the mostly cited (n = 5 060). Keyword co-occurrence analysis showed that the highest-frequency Chinese terms included impotence, anxiety, andrology, expert consensus, experience of famous doctors, acupuncture, Earthworm protein (Chinese) and hypertension, and the English terms included erectile dysfunction, apoptosis, inflammation, fibrosis, risk and women.

Recent years have wit-nessed a rapid development in ED-related studies in China, with the risk factors and patho-genic mechanisms of ED as hot topics. PDE5 inhibitors and adipose-derived stem cells for the treatment of ED have attracted long and continuous attention and will remain an important target of future research.