Global Status and Future Trends of Fascia and Pain Research in 2013–2022: Bibliometric Analysis Based on CiteSpace and VOSviewer

Abstract

Background

Fascial pathological pain is the main type of chronic pain in older adults today, and studying the relationship between fascia and pain can help in the clinical search for effective treatments. However, in the face of the vast amount of research findings, there is no systematic assessment of the relationship between fascia and pain in a bibliometric analysis. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze studies on fascia and pain using CiteSpace and VOSviewer to identify research hotspots and future directions.

Materials and Methods

A total of 744 papers related to fascia and pain from 2013 to 2022 were collected from the core collection database of Web of Science, and the authors, countries, institutions, keyword co-occurrence, keyword clustering, and keyword emergence were analyzed by CiteSpace and VOSviewer to construct a knowledge map.

Results

Literature publication has shown an overall upward trend over the past decade, but there have been some fluctuations. Carmelo Pirri, Caterina Fede, and Raffaele De Caro are the top three authors with the most articles. The United States, China, and Spain are major contributors to fascial and pain research. The University of Padua, Universidad Complutense and Harvard Medical School are leading institutions in this field. However, it is noteworthy that the collaboration between authors, countries and institutions is not active. Keyword analysis showed that hot spots and trends in research on fascia and pain focused on hot diseases, major interventions, and mechanism exploration.

Conclusion

This analysis identifies the most influential authors, institutions, and countries in the field of fascial and pain research and provides a reference for assessing their academic impact. The analysis of keywords and co-cited literature is useful for analyzing research hotspots and their evolution, as well as for predicting future trends.

Keywords:

• fascia
• pain
• bibliometrics analysis
• knowledge graph
• research progress

Abbreviations

WoSCC, Web of Science Core Collection; MPS, Myofascial pain syndrome; MTrP, myofascial trigger point; TrP, trigger point.

Acknowledgments

We are indebted to all the individuals who participated in, or helped with, our research.

Author Contributions

All authors made a significant contribution to the work reported, whether that is in the conception, study design, execution, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, or in all these areas; took part in drafting, revising or critically reviewing the article; gave final approval of the version to be published; have agreed on the journal to which the article has been submitted; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. 2021A1515011580; 2021B1515140012; 2023A1515010083); Dongguan Science and Technology of Social Development Program (No. 20211800905342); the Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Guangdong Province (No. 20211216); the Medical Scientific Research Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. A2020096; B2021330); the Research and Development Fund of Dongguan People’s Hospital (No. k202005); Guangdong Medical University Students’ Innovation Experiment Project (No. 2021ZZDS006; 2021ZCDS003; 2022ZYDS003; 2022FYDB009; 2022FCDS003); the Guangdong Medical University students’ innovation and entrepreneurship training program (No. GDMU2021003; GDMU2021049; GDMU2022031; GDMU2022047; GDMU2022063; GDMU2022077; GDMU2022078); the Provincial and national college students’ innovation and entrepreneurship training program (No.202110571010; No.S202110571078; No.202210571008; No.S202210571075); Guangdong Medical University-Southern Medical University twinning research team project (No.4SG23033G); the Scientific Research Fund of Guangdong Medical University (No. GDMUZ2020009); and the Cai Limin National Traditional Chinese Medicine Inheritance Studio.