Publication Trends and Hot Spots in Femoroacetabular Impingement Research: A 20-Year Bibliometric Analysis

Background Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) has attracted increasing attention over the past few decades. We aim to evaluate FAI research and predict research hot spots quantitatively and qualitatively. Methods The publications in FAI research between 2000 and 2019 were assimilated from the Web of Science Core Collection of Clarivate Analytics. The retrieved data were evaluated by the bibliometric method. Software CiteSpace 5.7.R1, VOSviewer 1.6.15, and the Online Analysis Platform of Literature Metrology (http://bibliometric.com/) were used to analyze and identify the hot spots and trends in this field. Results A total of 2471 originals articles that fulfilled the study requirements were obtained. The number of manuscripts on FAI has experienced rapid growth, especially after 2009. The United States of America was the leading country for publication and to the collaboration network. FAI, osteoarthritis, hip arthroscopy, labral reconstruction, pathomorphology, outcome, rehabilitation, and joint cartilage are some of the high-frequency keywords in co-occurrence cluster analysis and cocited reference cluster analysis. Burst detection analysis of top keywords revealed that outcomes, instability, labral reconstruction, adolescent, and risk factor were newly emerged research hot spots. Conclusion The understanding of FAI has been improved significantly during the past two decades. Present studies focused on identifying the optimal method to treat labral pathology, outcome assessment of either surgeries or conservative managements, and predicting midterm and long-term outcomes. Together these studies exert critical implications for decision-making and management for FAI.