Abstract
BACKGROUND: To analyze research activity on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leaks in general and CSF rhinorrhea and otorrhea in particular, and to identify the main topic clusters in these areas. METHODS: We identified all documents using the medical subject heading “Cerebrospinal Fluid Leak” indexed in the MEDLINE database between 1945 and 2018. We performed a descriptive bibliometric analysis and analyses of networks and research clusters in order to identify the main topic areas of research.RESULTS: From 1945 to 2018 a total of 4130 records were published with the term CSF, including 2821 documents (68.1%) with the term CSF rhinorrhea and 1040 documents (25.8%) with CSF otorrhea. The number of documents published increased from 10 in 1945-49 to 642 in 2010-14. Articles were the dominant document type (86.8% of the documents analyzed), while case reports were the main type of study (37.4%). In terms of geographic distribution, researchers from the United States of America (USA) led in the number of signatures (39.06%), followed by those from the United Kingdom (UK) (7.49%). The most active areas of research in the field were “Postoperative Complications,” “Tomography, X-Ray Computed,” and “Magnetic Resonance Imaging.” The terms “Adults,” “Young Adult,” and “Middle Aged” were most common in CSF rhinorrhea research; and the terms “Infant,” “Child, Preschool,” “Child,” and “Adolescent” were more common in CSF otorrhea. CONCLUSIONS: Articles and case reports related with “Surgery” and “Postoperative Complications” associated with diagnosis are the main topic of study, highlighting the importance of this document type in advancing knowledge.
Cerebrospinal Fluid Leak after Acoustic Neuroma Surgery via Middle Cranial Fossa Approach
