Global research hotspots and trends in the field of surgical treatment of congenital tracheal stenosis in infants and children over the past 40 years: A bibliometric and visualization study.

Congenital tracheal stenosis (CTS) is a rare and highly fatal airway obstructive disorder. Recent years have seen the recognition of several forms of surgery as safe and effective means of improving the survival of children with CTS. It is important to complement the comprehensive and systematic pulse combing analysis of this research field. In order to give future researchers ideas and references, we examine the literature on the surgical treatment of CTS during the past 40 years and compile a summary of the cutting-edge trends and research hotspots in this area. A search was conducted through the Web of Science database's core dataset for relevant publications pertaining to the surgical treatment of CTS from 1983 to 2024. CiteSpace 6.3, VOSviewer 1.6.18, Scimago Graphica 1.0.26, R-bibliometrix 4.6.1, and Pajek 5.16 tools were used for analysis and visualization. 327 publications total were found. With 82 papers, the US ranked first. Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children National Health Service Foundation Trust was ranked first for institutions with 24 papers. With 48 papers, the Journal of Pediatric Surgery had the top spot among journals, while Elliott MJ had the highest ranking among authors with 15. Study keywords were sliding tracheoplasty, congenital long tracheal stenosis, airway reconstruction, interventional procedures, airway stenting, intact tracheal rings, degradable airway stents, modified sliding tracheoplasty, trachelectomy, difficult intubation, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, central airway stenosis, balloon-expandable metal stents, airway mucosa, Pierre Robin sequence, ventilation. The existing body of research indicates that there is still a great deal of untapped potential in the surgical treatment of CTS. The research hotspot is the clinical efficacy study of selecting the optimal timing and sequence of surgical procedures for the treatment of CTS combined with cardiovascular disease, the use of extracorporeal circulatory devices as an aid to reduce the surgical mortality rate, and the exploring preoperative predictive risk by reviewing patient cases to explore preoperative predictive risk factor studies. The reliability and feasibility of a new index to objectively assess tracheal flow function before and after surgery, new bioabsorbable scaffolds with longer degradation times and increased radial expansion, and new technologies such as visualization surgery.