Liver Transplantation in the Era of Metabolic Bariatric Surgery: A Bibliometric Analysis

With the global prevalence of obesity, researches on metabolic bariatric surgery for patients with obesity and end-stage liver disease that require liver transplantation has gained increasing attention.

This study aimed to perform a bibliometric analysis of metabolic bariatric surgery for patients with obesity and end-stage liver disease that require liver transplantation from 1900 to 2025 to identify major contributors and current research status, and to look forward to the research trends and future development prospects in this field.

A total of 121 relevant articles from 1 January 1900 to 5 February 2025 were obtained from the Web of Science Core Collection database. VOS viewer and Cite Space were utilized as bibliometric tools to analyze and visualize knowledge mapping.

A total of 121 publications were identified, 24 nations/regions participated in this field, with 695 scholars from 91 institutions. Mayo Clinic (USA) dominates with 13 publications and 516 citations; UC San Francisco (6 pubs, 416 cites) and the University of Toronto (2 pubs, 205 cites, over 100 cites per pub) excel in quality. The top 10 features 7 US institutions, plus ones from Canada, Europe, and South America, forming the field's high-impact core cluster.

Our study analyzes 121 publications (1997-2025) on liver transplantation and metabolic bariatric surgery. The field is dominated by U.S. institutions, particularly the Mayo Clinic. Researches mainly focus on following areas: surgical timing (before, during, or after transplantation), management of post-transplant obesity, liver status, donor applications, and obesity-related liver diseases. Current evidence mainly limited to retrospective studies and case reports with small sample sizes. Future work requires prospective, multi-center trials and an international registry to establish standardized guidelines for this evolving field.