A 10-Year Scientometrics Analysis of Brain Tumors Treated with Gamma Knife Radiosurgery: Visualization, Characteristics, and Scientific Trends

Abstract

Objective. To evaluate the scientometrics characteristics of the scientific production on the treatment of brain tumors with gamma knife radiosurgery in Scopus. Methods. The Scopus database (Elsevier) was used to collect all relevant studies for this bibliometric analysis. Data was obtained as a .csv file; it was downloaded from Scopus and was exported by SciVal to Microsoft Excel for a presentation using tables for more detailed analysis. The citations and the number of papers for the most productive institutions, authors, countries, and journals publishing scientific papers were analyzed on the use of gamma knife radiosurgery for brain tumors. Results. 458 metadata were obtained from scientific publications, on which inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, leaving 248 studies. The maximum peak of publications was 2018 with 31 publications, and the minimum peak was 2015 with 18. The most related subtopics were neurology, surgery, and oncology, and most of the retrieved papers had only institutional collaboration. As for more productive journals, Journal of Neurosurgery is first with 23 publications; within the countries with the most scientific publications, we have the United States, Japan, and China. With the United States being the country with the highest number of productions, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center was the main university with the highest scientific production and Sheehan and Trifiletti and American authors dominate the list with the highest number of documents. Conclusion. Scientific production regarding gamma knife surgery and brain tumors has been increasing during the last 10 years, with a high incidence during 2018, and the highest number of published articles was in the first quartile. Likewise, the United States is the country with the most publications, authors, and universities on the subject. Greater efforts are still lacking from all countries in the world to reach the quantity and quality of production of the United States.