Research trends and frontiers on risk factors of urinary stones: a bibliometric analysis from 2010 to 2023

The occurrence of urinary stone disease (USD) is associated with several factors. However, no conclusive results have been reached regarding the treatment of USD risk factors. This study conducted a detailed bibliometric analysis of USD risk factors to determine research hotspots and provide future development directions.

Articles and reviews on the USD risk factors published between 2010 and 2023 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. Co-occurrence and collaboration analyses of countries, institutions, authors, journals, references, and keywords were conducted using CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and R-Bibliometrix.

A total of 436 articles on USD risk factors were included in the study. China and the United States have emerged as the leading countries in this field, with the Mayo Clinic having the highest amount of publication output. Among all the authors, Ferraro PM had the highest number of publications, while Taylor EN was the highly cited author. The journal with the highest number of publications was UROLITHIASIS. Scales reported the reference with the highest burst strength. The current citation themes in research on USD risk factors were 'multifaceted relationship' and 'kidney stone disease recurrence'. 'Medical-management' was identified as a major keyword, indicating future research hotspots.

This study employed bibliometric methods to conduct a comprehensive visual analysis of USD risk factors to show publication trends and popular topics in this area over the past decade. The results provide a valuable reference for future research on the risk factors of USD.