Abstract
Background
Vagal nerve stimulation (VNS) has become established as an effective tool for the
management of various neurologic disorders. Consequently, a growing number of VNS
studies have been published over the past four decades. This study presents a bibliometric
analysis investigating the current trends in VNS literature.
Materials and Methods
Using the Web of Science collection data base, a search was performed to identify
literature that discussed applications of VNS from 2000 to 2021. Analysis and visualization
of the included literature were completed with VOSviewer.
Results
A total of 2895 publications were identified. The number of articles published in
this area has increased over the past two decades, with the most citations (7098)
occurring in 2021 and the most publications (270) in 2020. The h-index, i-10, and
i-100 were 97, 994, and 91, respectively, with 17.0 citations per publication on average.
The highest-producing country and institution of VNS literature were the United States
and the University of Texas, respectively. The most productive journal was Epilepsia. Epilepsy was the predominant focus of VNS research, with the keyword “epilepsy”
having the greatest total link strength (749) in the keyword analysis. The keyword
analysis also revealed two major avenues of VNS research: 1) the mechanisms by which
VNS modulates neural circuitry, and 2) therapeutic applications of VNS in a variety
of diseases beyond neurology. It also showed a significant prevalence of noninvasive
VNS research. Although epilepsy research appears more linked to implanted VNS, headache
and depression specialists were more closely associated with noninvasive VNS.
Conclusion
VNS may serve as a promising intervention for rehabilitation beyond neurologic applications,
with an expanding base of literature over the past two decades. Although epilepsy
researchers have produced most current literature, other fields have begun to explore
VNS as a potential treatment, likely owing to the rise of noninvasive forms of VNS.
Graphical abstract
Graphical Abstract
Keywords
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Comments
Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 13, 2022
Accepted:
July 1,
2022
Received in revised form:
June 23,
2022
Received:
April 11,
2022
Footnotes
Source(s) of financial support: The authors reported no funding sources.
Conflict of Interest: The authors reported no conflict of interest.
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© 2022 International Neuromodulation Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
