SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Med.
Sec. Obstetrics and Gynecology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1554875
Research hotspots and trends in unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion (URSA) from 2014 to 2024: A bibliometric analysis
Provisionally accepted
- Shanghai Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Technologies, Shanghai, China
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Recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA) represents a significant challenge in obstetrics and reproductive medicine. Causative factors in 40-50% of RSA couples remain unknown, a condition termed unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion (URSA). This study employed bibliometric analysis to elucidate global research trends and identify key areas of interest in URSA.We utilized the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC), including Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), as our data source. Our search encompassed all publications on URSA published between 1 January 2014 and 30 October 2024. Following rigorous removal of duplicates, we retained 586 relevant publications, including 532 original articles and 54 reviews. We conducted bibliometric analysis using CiteSpace, VOSviewer and Microsoft Excel.Analysis of annual publications and their citations demonstrated significant growth over the last ten years. China, the United States and Iran emerged as the most productive countries in the field. Author distribution indicated the absence of a cohesive core author group, suggesting a dispersed research community. The top five cited publications included one prospective observational study, one randomized controlled trial, two reviews, and one immunohistochemistry study, focusing on the etiology, interventions, and therapies of URSA.Keyword cluster analysis identified six categories, with the top three keywords being "expression", "polymorphisms", and "regulatory T-cells".This bibliometric analysis reveals three key research domains over the last decade in URSA: immunological mechanism and therapies, genetic mechanism, and anticoagulation therapies.While these areas have advanced our understanding, limitations persist in etiological heterogeneity and therapeutic inconsistencies. Future studies should prioritize rigorous multicenter trials with phenotypic stratification, and multi-omics approaches for mechanistic insights. Enhanced global collaboration and interdisciplinary integration are essential to transition from empirical management to evidence-based precision medicine in URSA.
Keywords: Unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion (URSA), spontaneous abortion, Habitual abortion, women health, bibliometric analysis, Citespace, VOSviewer, visual analysis
Received: 03 Jan 2025; Accepted: 24 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jiang, Zhang, Li and Che. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yan Che, Shanghai Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Technologies, Shanghai, China
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