Unveiling the citation classics: Bibliometric analysis and visualization of the top 100 most cited articles on traumatic brain injury

Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) remains a major global health issue with high incidence and mortality, particularly in East Asia. However, most high-impact publications still originate from Western institutions. Significant heterogeneity in study designs, populations, and outcome measures limits the development of standardized clinical guidelines. Bibliometric analysis helps map the scientific landscape, highlight trends and gaps, and support more targeted research. Methods: A total of 79,608 publications related to TBI were retrieved from the Dimensions database for publications from 2000 to 2025. From this dataset, the top 100 most-cited articles were selected and further analyzed using VOSviewer to map study design, keywords, institutions, authors, and research collaboration networks. Results: Frequent keywords included “Mild Traumatic Brain Injury”, “Intracranial Pressure”, and “Death”. Most studies involved human subjects ( n = 82), mainly cross-sectional designs. Mild TBI was predominantly investigated using observational studies, with no specific randomized clinical trial. Only 6% of articles specifically focused on pediatric populations. Prominent institutions included Imperial College London and the University of California, Los Angeles. Leading authors were mainly from the UK and the USA. Despite the high burden of TBI in East Asia, most influential studies came from Western countries. Conclusion: This bibliometric analysis identifies critical gaps in TBI research, including the absence of randomized controlled trials evidence for mild TBI, underrepresentation of pediatric research, and a geographic mismatch between research output and disease burden. Addressing these gaps can improve evidence-based practice and advance global TBI care.