Lumbar spondylolysis: A bibliometric analysis and visualization research from 2000 to 2023

Objective: To conduct a bibliometric analysis of lumbar spondylolysis research in the Web of Science database over the past 23 years. This analysis aimeds to determine the field’s knowledge graph and explore the development trends, research focus, and frontiers in lumbar spondylolysis. Methods: We conducted a study of lumbar spondylolysis research papers obtained from the WOS Core Collection. Excel, CiteSpace, and VOSviewer were used to analyze and visualize the data. Our analysis included the number of published articles; the distribution of journals, countries, and institutions; and the cluster of authors, keywords, and references. Results: We found 1890 papers on lumbar spondylolysis, published in 380 journals, including 7328 authors from 634 institutions in 68 countries/regions. Over time, the number of studies on lumbar spondylolysis has gradually increased. Spine magazine published the most articles, making it the most cited journal. The United States and Japan have published the most papers, whereas Tokushima University has been the most influential institution. Koichi Sairyo published the most articles and received the highest number of co-citations. The research categories include orthopedics, clinical neurology, surgery, sports science, and medical imaging. The areas of recent interest include standardized conservative treatment, appropriate surgical planning, postoperative recovery exercises, avoidance of surgical complications, and biomechanical finite element analysis. Conclusion: Research on lumbar spondylolysis has received increasing attention. The CiteSpace and VOSviewer software can provide bibliometric and visual analyses. Our study provides valuable information for future studies on lumbar spondylolysis.