Mapping the Knowledge Landscape and Research Frontiers of NETs in Sepsis: A Bibliometric Analysis from 2004 to 2025

Sepsis is a clinical syndrome characterized by dysregulated inflammatory and immune responses, leading to multiple organ dysfunction. Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) have attracted increasing attention for their role in this process. This study was then performed to conduct a bibliometric analysis to explore research progress on the involvement of NETs in the pathophysiology of sepsis.

This bibliometric analysis was conducted using CiteSpace and VOSviewer based on literature retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection WoSCC database from 2004-2025.

A total of 809 publications from 2,804 institutions across 224 countries/regions, published in 315 journals, were included. The United States, China, and Germany were the top three contributing countries, with Harvard University leading among institutions. Herrmann Martin was the most prolific author, while Volker Brinkmann's work received the highest co-citation frequency. Frontiers in Immunology and Blood ranked first in publication volume and co-citation frequency, respectively. Co-citation and clustering analyses delineated a thematic evolution from early studies on immune response and systemic infection toward current emphases on organ injury, coagulation dysfunction, and clinically oriented translational therapeutic research in NETs-related sepsis. Keyword co-occurrence analysis highlighted increasing interest in mechanistic topics such as GSDMD and immunothrombosis, while citation burst analysis pointed to growing attention on lung injury and heparin in therapeutic and translational contexts.

This study summarizes the developmental trajectory, current landscape, and future directions of research on NETs in sepsis, and highlights the growing emphasis on understanding the immunopathological mechanisms of NET-mediated injury as well as the translational studies derived from these mechanistic insights.