Global research status in the treatment of glaucoma: a systematic bibliometric analysis

To present an overview of the research on global glaucoma treatment in the last decade in terms of publication year, journals, countries/regions, organizations, references, and keywords, to investigate the current research international trends and hot topics in this area.

Bibliometric analysis was conducted on 9128 articles in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC; Clarivate) database. Quantitative and qualitative analysis was employed using VOSviewer (v1.6.18), Pajek (v1.0.0.0), and CiteSpace (v6.1.R2) software.

The 9128 papers relating to glaucoma treatment were published from April 2013 to April 2023, of which 7482 articles (82%) were original research articles and 1464 (18%) were review articles. The United States (2867) and Johns Hopkins University (166) were the most productive country and institution, respectively, but the University College London had the highest h-index (54). The Journal of Glaucoma was the most productive and Ophthalmology had the highest h-index compared with other journals. The Keywords of interest included treatment surgery, cyclophotocoagulation, minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS), trabeculectomy, baerveldt, epidemiology, medication adherence, nanoparticle, optical coherence tomography (OCT), gene therapy, and artificial intelligence (AI). Glaucoma surgery appeared as a current research hotspot through the analysis of keywords.

This study provides insights into the research trends and potential research hotspots in the treatment of glaucoma. This will help researchers to evaluate research policies and to promote international cooperation.