50 years of methylprednisolone application in spinal cord injury: a bibliometric analysis

Acta Neurochirurgica, 2025 · DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00701-025-06443-5 · Published: January 24, 2025

Simple Explanation

Methylprednisolone (MP) is a synthetic glucocorticoid medication that shares a similar chemical structure with the endogenously secreted glucocorticoid cortisol. Early research reports suggested that high-dose glucocorticoids may alleviate the inflammatory response following SCI and possibly promote neural recovery. Methylprednisolone application in Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) from 1975 to 2023 was examined using Web of Science and CiteSpace software.

Study Duration

1975 to 2023

Participants

1,651 articles

Evidence Level

Not specified

Key Findings

1
A total of 1,651 articles were identified, and publication numbers showed a consistent annual increase.
2
The United States and Canada led in publication counts, H-index values, and citations
3
The most frequent keywords included ‘trauma,’ ‘lipid peroxidation,’ ‘dose response,’ ‘ischemia,’ and ‘methylprednisolone.’

Research Summary

This study provides a bibliometric analysis of the application of methylprednisolone in spinal cord injury research over the past 50 years. Collaboration between different academic groups in the field needs to be strengthened, according to our research. Clinical teams slightly collaborate more closely with basic research teams, and there is a lack of advanced technologies and research methods such as single-cell sequencing for basic research on specific mechanisms.

Practical Implications

Future research direction

Future studies will primarily focus on guidelines, clinical practices, and global standards.

Efficacy of methylprednisolone

Addresses the efficacy of the existing methylprednisolone therapy and determines whether low or high doses are more effective.

Novel drug delivery systems

Focus on the development of novel drug delivery systems to reduce the systemic side effects of methylprednisolone.

Study Limitations

1
Excluding comments and other types of literature may have been missed some popular research topics.
2
Omitted some research due to our use of only one database, WoSCC, while ignoring other databases such as PubMed, Scopus, and Embase.
3
Excluding non-English articles may affect the conclusion.

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