The 50 Most-Cited Articles on Renal Angiomyolipoma: A Bibliometric Analysis

Introduction. Renal angiomyolipoma (AML) is an uncommon benign renal neoplasm with a diverse body of literature spanning diagnosis, pathology, molecular biology, surveillance, and treatment. This study aimed to identify and characterize the 50 most-cited publications on renal AML and to examine the bibliometric, methodological, authorship, and thematic features associated with their citation performance. Methods. A retrospective bibliometric analysis was performed using the Web of Science Core Collection. The database was searched on July 22, 2026, for publications indexed from 1975 to 2026 using terms related to renal AML. Citation counts were recorded as of August 5, 2026. Of 1,414 retrieved records, the 100 most-cited were screened for eligibility, and the 50 highest-ranked eligible publications were included. Citation performance, source journals, geographic and institutional contributions, study designs, levels of evidence, authorship characteristics, and research themes were analyzed. Keyword co-occurrence, reference co-citation, and bibliographic coupling analyses were also performed. Exploratory associations with citation rate within the selected corpus were assessed using negative binomial regression. Results. The 50 articles were published between 1986 and 2020 and accumulated 7,764 citations, with a median of 122.5 citations per article (IQR 103.2–194.8). The Journal of Urology contributed the largest number of publications (n = 8), while the United States was the leading country of first-author affiliation (n = 28, 56.0%). Retrospective observational studies were the most common design (28.0%), and Level IV evidence predominated (66.0%). Multi-country authorship was present in 23 of 48 articles with available address data (47.9%). In exploratory adjusted analysis within the selected corpus, review articles had a higher citation rate than primary clinical studies (IRR 1.83, 95% CI 1.37–2.46), while multi-country publications had a higher citation rate than single-country publications (IRR 1.66, 95% CI 1.29–2.14). Major research themes included tuberous sclerosis complex pathology and molecular biology, diagnosis and imaging, embolization, surgery and follow-up, epithelioid and atypical variants, and mTOR inhibition and lymphangioleiomyomatosis. Conclusions. The most-cited literature on renal AML is multidisciplinary and reflects the evolution of the field across diagnosis, pathology, surveillance, and treatment. Review articles and multi-country authorship were associated with higher citation rates within the selected corpus. Future bibliometric studies could include newer and less-cited publications to assess patterns beyond this citation-selected corpus.