手根管症候群における超音波画像診断に関するCiteSpaceを用いた文献計量学および可視化分析
Chao Wang1, Jing Wang2, Xiaoqing Shen1
1Department of Shaoxing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shaoxing TCM Hospital Affiliated To Zhejiang Chinese Medical University.
Objective:
Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a common peripheral nerve disease that is addressed by hand surgery, and it is caused by increased pressure in the carpal tunnel, which compresses the median nerve. Ultrasound can clearly visualize the internal structures of the carpal tunnel and assess the morphology and mobility of the median nerve, which play an important role in the diagnosis of CTS. In this study, CiteSpace (version 6.2 R6) was employed to analyze the academic literature concerning countries, institutions, journals, authors, and keywords in order to identify the research trends and hotspots of ultrasound in CTS and to identify future research directions.
Methods:
Literature on ultrasound imaging of CTS published between 1998 and June 2025 was retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. CiteSpace software was used to analyze countries, institutions, journals, authors, and keywords.
Results:
The United States had the highest number of publications. Keyword analysis showed that carpal tunnel syndrome, the median nerve, diagnosis, cross-sectional area reference values, and ultrasound evaluation were the main research focuses.
Conclusions:
The United States, the United Kingdom, and Austria play important roles in ultrasound research on CTS. Ultrasound evaluation of the median nerve cross-sectional area and mobility is a key direction for the diagnosis of CTS, and current research hotspots focus on shear wave elastography techniques. In addition, we predict that with the advancement of ultrasound blood flow detection technology, assessing blood flow in the median nerve will become an important research direction.
