Research Trends and Hotspots of Traditional Chinese Medicine for Knee Osteoarthritis from 2005 to 2025: A Bibliometric Analysis

Summary

This bibliometric analysis reveals rapid growth in research on Traditional Chinese Medicine for knee osteoarthritis, with China leading contributions. Current hotspots include ginger, peony., and Duhuo Jisheng Decoction. Mechanistic studies on inflammation, oxidative stress, and apoptosis are likely to be a future research trend.

Abstract

Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a prevalent degenerative joint disease that causes significant pain, functional impairment, and reduced quality of life, particularly among the aging population worldwide. While Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been widely used in clinical practice for KOA management, there has been a lack of systematic, data-driven synthesis to map the global research trends, key contributors, and core themes in this area. This study conducts a comprehensive bibliometric analysis to map the research landscape, identify trends, and forecast future directions in the application of TCM for KOA. Articles published between 2005 and 2025 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. A total of 339 relevant publications were analyzed using VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and the Bibliometric R package to assess contributions and trends related to countries, institutions, journals, authors, references, and keywords. Our study elucidates the global research landscape of TCM for KOA. Findings indicate a rapidly growing trend in publications, with China as the predominant contributor, although international collaboration remains limited. Leading contributors include authors Wang Peimin and Liu Jun, the Journal of Ethnopharmacology (publication volume), and Osteoarthritis & Cartilage .(citation impact). Research focuses on herbs such as ginger and peony, as well as on formulas such as Duhuo Jisheng Decoction. Emerging methodologies such as network pharmacology and molecular docking are clarifying the mechanisms of TCM, with future trends pointing to inflammation, oxidative stress, and apoptosis. This study provides valuable insights to guide future research and advance the modernization of TCM for KOA.

Introduction

Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is the most common degenerative joint disease and has become a major public health challenge affecting the quality of life of middle-aged and elderly populations¹. According to statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 10% of men and 18% of women over 60 years old worldwide are affected by KOA, and its incidence is rising rapidly with the acceleration of population aging^2,3. These conditions manifest through a series of clinical symptoms, such as pain, knee swelling, and functional impairment, bringing significant difficulties to pa....

Protocol

The entire process of bibliometric analysis is presented in Supplementary Figure 1.

Data sources and retrieval strategy
This study utilized Web of Science (WoS) as its primary database due to its reliability, broad multidisciplinary scope, and the inclusion of over 12,000 international academic journals¹⁵. A comprehensive bibliometric search was performed in the Web of Science Core Collection (SCI-Expanded) on July 23, 2025. Two researchers independently screened the literature, and disagreements were resolved by a third researcher. The search strategy is illustrated in th....

Results

Global trends in publication and citations
Using the implemented search strategy, a total of 6847 publications related to TCM and KOA were identified, spanning from January 1st, 2005, to July 23rd, 2025. Among these, 273 articles (80.53%) and 66 reviews (19.47%) were encompassed. The global trend in annual publications and citations is illustrated in Figure 2. The annual number of global publications on TCM for KOA has shown a fluctuating upward trend year by year. From .......

Discussion

KOA is a degenerative joint disease characterized by decreased chondrocyte synthesis and increased catabolism, infiltration of macrophages and T lymphocytes into the synovium, abnormal functions of osteoblasts and osteoclasts, and impaired repair capacity of mesenchymal stem cells. These abnormal cellular changes interact with each other, ultimately leading to joint structural destruction and functional impairment^18,19,20. ^.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
CiteSpace	Developed and maintained by Professor Chaomei Chen of Drexel University.	CiteSpace 6.3. R1 Basic	CiteSpace (version 6.3. R1 Basic) was employed for visual analysis, illustrating the intricate yet informative scientific landscapes concerning TCM and KOA.This analysis encompassed diverse dimensions ranging from Countries, institutions, references, to keywords, leveraging methods such as co-authorship, co-citation, clustering, timelines and burstiness.
R software	RStudio	R software version 5.1.0	The biblioshiny within the Bibliometric package (version 5.1.0) enables a reproducible workflow for data import, transformation, cleaning, comprehensive scientometric analysis, and direct visualization of scientific knowledge structures.
VOSviewer	Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS)	VOSviewer version 1.6.20	It transforms massive and complex literature data (such as thousands of academic papers) into intuitive and easy-to-understand visual network maps, thereby helping researchers quickly grasp the macro-level structure, evolutionary trajectory, and emerging trends of a research field.