Comprehensive bibliometric and visualized analysis of research on incisional hernia and component separation from 1996 to 2023

Mohamed Maatouk; Imen Maatouk; Ghassen Hamdi Kbir; Ons Hmandi; Mariem Nouira; Mohamed Ben Khalifa

doi:10.1016/j.jpra.2025.04.012

Comprehensive bibliometric and visualized analysis of research on incisional hernia and component separation from 1996 to 2023

JPRAS Open. 2025 Apr 25:45:76-88. doi: 10.1016/j.jpra.2025.04.012. eCollection 2025 Sep.

Authors

Mohamed Maatouk¹, Imen Maatouk², Ghassen Hamdi Kbir¹, Ons Hmandi^{3

4}, Mariem Nouira⁵, Mohamed Ben Khalifa⁶

Affiliations

¹ A21 Surgery Department, Charles Nicolle Hospital, Research laboratory LR12ES01, Faculty of medicine of Tunis, Tunis El Manar University, Tunis, Tunisia.
² University of Monastir, Textile Engineering Laboratory (LGTex), Ksar-Hellal, Tunisia.
³ Department of Forensic Medicine, Charles Nicolle University Hospital, Tunis, Tunisia.
⁴ Faculty of Medicine, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia.
⁵ Department of Medical Epidemiology, Charles Nicolle Hospital, Faculty of medicine of Tunis, Tunis El Manar University, Tunis, Tunisia.
⁶ General surgery Department Tahar sfar hospital Mahdia, Faculty of Medicine, University of Monastir Tunisia, Tunisia.

Abstract

Introduction: In parallel with the increasing number of studies published on component separation technique (CST), there are no bibliometric studies on this subject. This study aimed to report previously published literature in CST to identify the research status.

Methods: A search was undertaken for documents published between 1996 and 2023 from the PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases, using the keywords "incisional hernia" and "component separation."

Results: A total of 469 publications was found from 121 different journals. The USA was in the leading position in several fields (productive authors, active institutions, and international cooperation).CST was predominantly published in plastic surgery journals; however, after more specialized journals on topics such as Hernia became predominant, dominating the number of publications since 2013. "Transversus Abdominis Release" and "minimally invasive" have been trending keywords in recent years.

Conclusion: Although CST research on incisional hernia repair has witnessed notable growth, publications in plastic surgery journals have declined. We encourage these journals to highlight the critical role of plastic surgery and the importance of collaboration between general and plastic surgeons worldwide, focusing on minimally invasive techniques to establish robust evidence for the standard repair of large abdominal wall defects.

Keywords: Bibliometric analysis; Incisional hernia -Component separation.

Publication types

Review