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Trends in the Use of Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality in Surgical Research: a Global Bibliometric and Visualized Analysis

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Abstract

There have been many major developments in the use of augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) technologies in the context of global surgical research, yet few reports on the trends in this field have been published to date. This study was therefore designed to explore these worldwide trends in this clinically important field. Relevant studies published from 1 January 2009 through 13 October 2020 were retrieved from the Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCI-E) tool of the Web of Science database. Bibliometric techniques were then used to analyze the resultant data, with visual bibliographic coupling, co-authorship, co-citation, co-occurrence, and publication trend analyses subsequently being conducted with GraphPad Prism 8 and with the visualization of similarities (VOS) software tool. There is no patient and public involved. In total, 6221 relevant studies were incorporated into this analysis. At a high level, clear global annual increases in the number of publications in this field were observed. The USA made the greatest contributions to this field over the studied period, with the highest H-index value, the most citations, and the greatest total link strength for analyzed publications. The country with the highest number of average citations per publication was Scotland. The Surgical Endoscopy And Other Interventional Techniques journal contributed the greatest number of publications in this field. The University of London was the institution that produced the greatest volume of research in this field. Overall, studies could be broadly classified into five clusters: Neurological Research, Surgical Techniques, Technological Products, Rehabilitative Medicine, and Clinical Therapy. The trends detected in the present analysis suggest that the number of global publications pertaining to the use of AR, VR, and MR techniques in surgical research is likely to increase in the coming years. Particular attention should be paid to emerging trends in related fields including MR, extended reality, head-mounted displays, navigation, and holographic images.

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Abbreviations

IF:

Impact factor

TLS:

Total link strength

WOS:

Web of Science

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Funding

This study was supported by a grant from National Nature Science Foundation of China (No. 81802204).

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Author notes

  1. Jing Zhang and Na Yu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Orthopedic Department, Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, 030001, China

    Jing Zhang, Bin Wang & Xin Lv

  2. Cardiology Department, Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China

    Na Yu

Authors
  1. Jing Zhang
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  2. Na Yu
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  3. Bin Wang
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  4. Xin Lv
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Contributions

Xin Lv and Bin Wang conceived the research; Jing Zhang and Na Yu collected the data and prepared the manuscript; Jing Zhang and Na Yu analyzed the data; Na Yu provided techniques and advice.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xin Lv.

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Ethical approval of the study was not necessary.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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No patient involved. This review was not registered. The protocol was not prepared.

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Zhang, J., Yu, N., Wang, B. et al. Trends in the Use of Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality in Surgical Research: a Global Bibliometric and Visualized Analysis. Indian J Surg 84 (Suppl 1), 52–69 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12262-021-03243-w

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