From feasibility to consolidation: a bibliometric analysis of robot-assisted stereoelectroencephalography (2011-2025)

Robot-assisted stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) has become an established technique for localising the epileptogenic zone in drug-resistant focal epilepsy, yet its literature has not been mapped bibliometrically. To characterise the structure, dynamics, and thematic evolution of this literature, we analysed 151 publications (118 articles, 33 reviews) indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection between 2011 and 2025, using Bibliometrix for performance and thematic analysis and VOSviewer for co-authorship networks. The corpus grew at a compound annual rate of 21.90% and reached a corpus h-index of 33; segmented Poisson regression identified a single change in regime at 2020, after which annual output was higher but showed no further trend. Author productivity was steeply skewed (Lotka β = 3.37). The United States led in both volume (72 publications) and impact (national h-index 22), whereas Italy recorded the highest per-document citation rate (164.4) on only five publications. The intellectual foundation rested on accuracy- and safety-validation studies, led by Cardinale et al. and González-Martínez et al. A stable SEEG core persisted while the field evolved from early depth-electrode themes toward a recent reorganisation around robotics, the learning curve, and expanded indications such as deep brain stimulation and radiofrequency thermocoagulation. These findings chart how the literature consolidated around a narrow validation base and then shifted toward delivery and training, identifying training standardisation, comparative-effectiveness research, and wider global access as its principal open priorities.