Application status and hotspots of traditional Chinese medicine nursing skills in elderly patients with constipation

Objective To explore the application status and hotspots of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) skills in elderly patients with constipation. Methods We searched the documents on clinical application of TCM skills in elderly patients with constipation published from 2000 to 2016 based on CNKI data knowledge service platform. The bibliometrics software, Bicomb and gCLUTO 1.0, was used to quantitative study on the documents. Results A total of 899 documents were searched and 46 high-frequency keywords were screened such as nursing and point massage. The research hotspots included Tianshu point-functional constipation, moxibustion-abdominal distension and constipation of thoracolumbar fractures, Shenque point-senile functional constipation, acupuncture-senile thoraco-lumbar constipation of femoral neck fracture, acupoint application and massage as well as seed-embedding at ear points-senile constipation of cardiovascular disease, TCM umbilical therapy-constipation of chemotherapy. Conclusions The number of literature on TCM skills in senile patients with constipation increases year by year with uneven development. The single application of TCM skills is in the majority with acupoint massage for the most. The number of fund-sponsored literature is small. The scientific research level and ability needs to be further improved. Key words: Aged; Constipation; Traditional Chinese medicine skills; Co-word cluster analysis; Research hotspots