Bibliometric analysis and data visualization on drug delivery systems for infectious keratitis

This study aimed to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the research literature on drug delivery systems (DDS) for infectious keratitis from 2006 to 2025, presenting research trends, current hotspots, and collaboration patterns through visual maps.

A systematic retrieval strategy was established to search and extract data from the Web of Science Core Collection database for studies on therapeutic DDS for keratitis between January 1, 2006, and December 31, 2025. GraphPad Prism, CiteSpace, AND VOSviewer were used to perform visualization analysis and evaluate the trends.

(1) Over the 20-year period from 2006 to 2025, the number of publications and citations on DDS for infectious keratitis has continued to increase, rising from an initial annual output of less than 10 to over 50 papers in recent years. (2) A total of 60 countries and regions worldwide participated in these publications, with China ranking first with a total of 137 papers. Cairo University emerged as the most productive institution, with 29 papers. Soumyajit Majumdar contributed the most, with 11 papers in total. In terms of academic impact, China had the highest total citation count( 3,169), whereas the USA showed the highest betweenness centrality. (3) The"International Journal of Pharmaceutics" was the leading journal in this field, with the highest number of co-citations (360). (4) Co-occurrence and clustering analysis of high-frequency keywords revealed several major themes centered on drug delivery, nanoparticles, fungal keratitis, drug formulation, and sustained release. High-frequency keyword and clustering analyses highlighted sustained interest in nanoparticles, hydrogels, liposomes, in situ gels and 3D printing related delivery strategies.

This bibliometric study covers two decades of research on the development and application of advanced DDS in the treatment of infectious keratitis. The field has attracted increasing global research attention, with China leading in publication output and the USA exerting greater academic influence. The current focus has shifted from traditional formulations to smart nanocarrier strategies. To achieve success, interdisciplinary collaboration is required to overcome the challenges of safety, production scalability, and clinical translation.