Guangtang Chen,1,* Yi Cao,1,2,* Xiaolin Du,3,* Junshuan Cui,1 Xi Zeng,1 Hua Yang,1 Zeguang Ren,1 Kaya Xu1 

1Department of Neurosurgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, People’s Republic of China; 2School of Nursing, Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Neurosurgery, The Affiliated Jinyang Hospital of Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, People’s Republic of China

*These authors contributed equally to this work

Correspondence: Guangtang Chen, Email 18286089635@163.com; Kaya Xu, Email xkaya@sina.com

Background: The 2023 American Heart Association/American Stroke Association guideline and Wessels et al’s 2024 randomized controlled trial highlight the potential benefits of intracranial nicardipine for aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). This study aims to systematically identify the publication trends and research hotspots in this field through bibliometric analysis.
Methods: Relevant publications were sourced from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). Bibliometric and visualization analyses were conducted using the online tools of the WoSCC database and CiteSpace 6.2.R6.
Results: Analysis of 28 articles published by 158 researchers from 55 institutions across 8 countries revealed an intermittent small-scale growth in annual publication volume from 1994 to 2024, with a continuous rise in annual citation volume since 2005, indicating growing interest in the field. Japan, Germany, and the United States of America (USA) were the most prolific and influential countries. Institutions such as Tokyo Women’s Medical University showed particularly significant contributions. Kasuya Hidetoshi was the most prolific author. There was little global collaboration among countries, institutions, and authors, with distinct regional research characteristics: Japan and Germany focused on intracranial implants, while the USA concentrated on intrathecal injections. Major publishing and co-cited journals included Neurocritical Care, Acta Neurochirurgica, Journal of Neurosurgery, and Stroke. Popular keywords in 2024 included “preventing cerebral vasospasm”, “delayed cerebral ischemia”, “outcome events”, and “clinical trials”, revealing current research hotspots.
Conclusion: This study maps the global clinical research landscape of intracranial application of nicardipine for aSAH from 1994 to 2024, providing valuable references and guidance for future research.

Keywords: aneurysm subarachnoid hemorrhage, intrathecal, intraventricular, nicardipine, NPRI