Background: Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis (CVST) is a relatively rare type of stroke, accounting for less than 3% of all stroke cases, and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality in young females. However, when promptly diagnosed and treated, it can have favorable outcomes. Several knowledge gaps remain regarding pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of CVST, so critical assessment of past and present research could help close these gaps or establish targeted future research goals.
Methods: We screened Elsevier Scopus database articles with CVST as the primary topic. Clinical guidelines, abstracts, letters, and editorials were excluded. The top 100 articles, ordered by number of citations, were selected, and data collection and analysis were performed using Microsoft Excel, R software, and VOS viewer.
Results: Out of 4,832 documents, the top 100 most-cited articles spanned the years of 1973 to 2021 and had a total citation frequency of 18,208. France and the United States were the top-contributing countries, and Stroke had the highest number of manuscripts published in the top 100 (n=30). Analysis of word-use trends over time showed increases in the mention of "vaccination" since 2021, "mechanical thrombectomy" since 2017, and "fibrinolytic therapy" since 2015.
Conclusions: Our study detailed the 100 most-cited articles on CVST in the past 50 years. Understanding top-contributing countries, authors, and journals may help guide the direction of future research in CVST and encourage collaboration within the field. Areas of further research may include association with other pathologies (non-infectious and infectious) and advancements in acute therapies.
Keywords: Bibliometric analysis; Biblioshiny; Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis; Cerebral venous thrombosis; VOSviewer.