Research trends and clustering analysis of postoperative infections following lumbar interbody fusion: a bibliometric study

This study presents a cluster analysis of research on postoperative infection following lumbar interbody fusion. It aims to identify major research themes, reveal development trends, and explore collaborative patterns in this field. Publications on postoperative infection and lumbar interbody fusion from 1998 to2024 were analyzed using VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and R-bibliometrix to visualize collaboration, keyword co-occurrences, and research trends. We analyzed a total of 349 publications, observing a general upward trend in research output. The USA emerged as a leader in both the number of publications and citations, with significant contributions from the University of California System and the Mayo Clinic. Zhou Yue was noted for his considerable scholarly influence. Among high-impact journals, Spine was identified as a prominent publication outlet. The keyword co-occurrence analysis highlighted the hotspots, such as types of postoperative infections, risk factors of postoperative infections, clinical outcomes and drainage treatment, and minimally invasive spinal surgery. Additionally, keyword burst analysis indicated a growing research interest in areas such as "risk factors", "indirect decompression" and "follow up." This bibliometric analysis provides a comprehensive overview of the research landscape concerning postoperative infection in lumbar interbody fusion. Current studies focused on research hotspots included types of postoperative infections, risk factors of postoperative infections, clinical outcomes and drainage treatment, and minimally invasive spinal surgery. The frontiers included identification of risk factors and the adoption of indirect decompression strategies for improved postoperative infections.