Research Progress of Sepsis and Nutrition: A Bibliometric and Visualized Analysis

Sepsis is a life-threatening syndrome resulting from a dysregulated host response to infection, which substantially increases the risk of progressive organ dysfunction and mortality. This study employs a comprehensive bibliometric analysis to systematically map the global scientific output and evolving research trends pertaining to sepsis and nutritional interventions.

A systematic literature search was conducted in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) to identify peer-reviewed publications addressing the nexus between nutrition and sepsis. Bibliometric analysis and visualization were subsequently performed through R (version4.4.0) with the R-bibliometrix package (version4.2.3), VOSviewer software (version 1.6.20) and CiteSpace (version 6.4.1).

From 2005 to 2025, a total of 2615 English articles on nutrition and sepsis were identified. The Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition was the most productive journal in this field (138 articles). The United States contributed the largest share of publications (609 articles) and accumulated the highest total citation count (24624 citations). Among individual authors, Greet Van den Berghe was the most prolific contributor. Keyword analysis further identified sepsis, parenteral nutrition and enteral nutrition as the top three most frequently occurring research themes.

This study provided a comprehensive overview of the global research landscape on sepsis and nutrition. The research results showed that parenteral and enteral nutrition, as the two core methods of clinical nutritional support, are currently the research focus. These findings might help guide researchers in determining the future directions of sepsis and nutrition research.