Bibliometric analysis on medical literatures of human heart transplantation from PubMed database

Objective To review the development of human heart transplantation in recent 10 years worldwide. Methods We analyzed medical literatures on human heart transplantation in PubMed database by using bibliometric tools such as Thomson Data Analyzer. The distributions of years, nations, institutions, and journals, and currently hot topics on human lung transplantation were analyzed.Results The number of papers of human heart transplantation did not vary a lot each year from 2000 to 2009. The top 3 journals were the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, Transplantation Proceedings, and Transplantation. The United States ranked the first in terms of number of publications (accounting for 62.2%), while Hetzer R and Reichart B from Germany were the top 2 authors of the most publications. Hot topics in the field of heart transplant were indications, tissue matching, transplant care, graft preservation, immunosuppressive agents, and rejection monitoring.Conclusion No obvious rush or standstill was seen in the development of human heart transplant research in recent 10 years. The number of publications from the United States was the most; the author at the top was from Germany; and topics included donor selection, graft preservation, and complications after transplantation.