Endo‑DCR Research Trends in Asia: Bibliometric Findings

A SCOPUS-based bibliometric approach was used to examine Endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy (Endo-DCR) research in Asian countries, summarizing publication trends alongside country contributions and keyword co-occurrence patterns.

Using SCOPUS-indexed Endo-DCR publications affiliated with Asian countries, filtered for English-language medicine articles published in peer-reviewed journals, the authors compiled records spanning 1972–2023 and report a final included set of 730 articles after sequential filtering and exclusions. They describe relying primarily on SCOPUS metadata—such as author affiliations, publication year, and author-supplied keywords—then cleaning the data to remove irrelevant terms and standardize synonymous phrases under single labels (e.g., multiple intubation-related keywords consolidated under “silicone tube”). For keyword co-occurrence mapping, they report using cleaned author keywords to visualize which terms tended to appear together across the dataset. These records underpin the paper’s trend, geography, and keyword observations.

Publication volume was described as sparse in the earliest decades, with only occasional papers prior to the 1990s and a more visible but still modest output through that decade. The authors report a clearer upward trajectory beginning in the early 2000s, followed by a marked surge after 2010, with a period of lower output in the mid-to-late 2010s. They highlight 2020–2022 as a peak window and identify 2022 as the highest-output year in their series (59 publications), followed by a lower count in the subsequent year. Overall, they characterize the temporal record as a long interval of low activity followed by acceleration over the past decade-plus.

Country-level attribution in the dataset was concentrated, with the authors identifying India and China as the leading contributors by article count. They report India as the top-affiliated country (n = 210) and China as second (n = 136) within the Asian-filtered corpus. Beyond these leading countries, the paper describes the regional landscape qualitatively, noting that output spanned multiple Asian settings but was not evenly represented across subregions. In sum, the authors present geographic contribution as clustered in a small number of countries within Asia.

For the keyword co-occurrence analysis, the authors report applying a minimum occurrence threshold of five; after exclusions and cleaning, 37 keywords met this criterion. Among the more common terms they list are “endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy,” “endoscopy,” “silicone tube,” “nasolacrimal duct intubation,” and “epiphora,” while they describe “mitomycin C,” “mucosal flap,” “revision,” “laser,” “drill,” and “success rate” as infrequently represented in the mapped keyword set. They also note constraints of the approach, including reliance on a single database (SCOPUS), dependence on author-provided keyword choices, and the possibility that thresholding can omit relevant low-frequency terms.

Looking ahead, the authors note variability in how Endo-DCR “success” and follow-up are reported, and point to post-operative outcomes and success rates as areas that could be evaluated further. Taken together, they link keyword variability and heterogeneous outcome terminology to challenges in comparing studies across the published Endo-DCR literature.

Key Takeaways:

• The authors report a SCOPUS-based dataset of Asian-affiliated Endo-DCR articles (1972–2023; 730 records), with publication activity rising notably in the most recent era after earlier low output.
• The analysis mapped geographic concentration, with the authors identifying India and China as the leading country contributors by article count.
• The authors describe thresholded keyword co-occurrence patterns alongside SCOPUS/keyword-selection limitations, and note standardization of keywords, technical-method reporting, and success definitions as areas they believe could improve comparability in future reports.