Publication trends of primary angle-closure disease during 1991-2022: a bibliometric analysis

To perform a bibliometric analysis in the field of primary angle-closure disease (PACD) research to characterize current global trends and compare contributions from different countries, institutions, journals, and authors.

All PACD-related publications from 1991 to 2022 from the Web of Science Core Collection database were extracted. Microsoft Excel and VOSviewer were used to collect publication data, analyze publication trends, and visualize relevant results.

A total of 1721 publications with 34591 citations were identified. China produced the most publications (554) while ranking third in citations (8220 times). The United States contributed the most citations (12315 times) with publications (362) ranking second. The Investigative Ophthalmology Visual Science was the most productive journal concerning PACD, and Aung Tin was the author with the highest number of publications in the field. Keywords were classified into three clusters, epidemiology and pathogenesis research, optical coherence tomography (OCT) and other imaging examinations, and glaucoma surgery treatment. Genome-wide association, susceptibility loci, OCT, and combined phacoemulsification have become new hot research topics in recent years since 2015.

China, the United States, and Singapore make the most outstanding contributions in the field of PACD research. OCT, combined phacoemulsification, and gene mutation-related study, are considered the potential focus for future research.