virtual reality and augmented reality Applications in surgery:Analysis of the Scientific Literature (Preprint)
BACKGROUND Background: Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have recently become popular research themes. However, there are no published bibliometric reports that have analyzed the corresponding scientific literature in relation to the application of these technologies in surgery. Our study aims to study the research trend on virtual reality and surgery, and compare the contribution of publications from different countries, institutions, journals and authors. OBJECTIVE We used a bibliometric approach to identify and analyze the scientific literature on virtual reality and surgery during 2001-2020 form Web of Science. GraphPad Prism 6, and VOSviewer software were used to collect and analyze the publication trend in related field, revealing the popular research topics, key authors, scientific institutions, countries, and journals. METHODS The Web of Science electronic database was searched to identify relevant papers on VR research in surgery. Basic publication and citation data were acquired using the “Analyze” and “Create Citation Report” functions of the database. Complete bibliographic data were exported to VOSviewer for further analyses. Visualization maps were generated to illustrate the recurring keywords and words mentioned in the titles and abstracts. RESULTS We identified a total of 3323 publications with citation frequency of 81919 times up to August 21, 2021. The United States accounted for the largest number of publications (30.575%), 31199 of total citations as well as the highest H-index (88). The sum of publications from China ranked the fifth, while the overall citations (3257) and H-index (29) ranked the eighth and the ninth, respectively. The paper published on Annals of Surgery in 2002 had been cited for 1759times, which was the most cited papers in related field. The “system research” seemed to be the hotspot in relevant scope. CONCLUSIONS The United States made the most outstanding contribution within this important field. There is a mismatch between the quantity and quality of publications from China. Latest progress can be tracked in Annals of Surgery. Augmented reality related researches may be hotspots in the near future.