Research progress and future directions on intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm: A bibliometric and visualized analysis of over 30 years of research.

Background: Malignant change from low-grade dysplasia to high-grade dysplasia and invasive carcinoma following an adenoma-carcinoma sequence is becoming more common in intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) of the pancreas. The aim of this study is to analyze their main characteristics and recent research trends in IPMNs and consequently create better understandings of the current situation and trends.

Methods: A comprehensive search was performed in The Science Citation Index Expanded of the Web of Science. All articles between 1990 and 2021 were searched. VOS viewer (Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands) was used for a qualitative and quantitative analysis of keywords, constituting maps based on co-occurrence matrix.

Results: A total of 1658 eligible articles were screened among the 3950 identified articles for this subject. Finally, 879 articles were included in this study. Many articles on IPMN have been published in Japan and South Korea. Tanaka published the highest number of articles (n = 26, citations = 11,143). The Pancreas published the highest number of articles. (n = 100, citations = 2533). These articles were grouped into 4 clusters including basic research, disease overview, management/prognosis and malignant IPMN by using bibliometric keywords network analysis. Overlay visualization demonstrates, a trend of the studies has been changed from basic research or disease to management or prognosis.

Conclusions: In this study, we found and highlight the most cited and influential articles related to IPMN. Plus, this study analyzed global research trends in IPMN over the past 30 years and provides insight into the features and research hotspots of the articles in IPMN research.