EP876 - Treatment of Slow Transit Constipation: A Bibliometric and Science-Mapping Analysis (2000–2025)

Purpose/Background: Slow transit constipation (STC), a refractory subtype of chronic constipation characterized by colonic transit delay and reduced intestinal motility, severely compromises patients' quality of life. Amid advances in precision diagnostics and therapeutics, quantifying and visualizing the global research trajectory is needed to guide innovation and trial design. This study employs bibliometric and science-mapping methods to characterize the landscape, temporal trends, and emerging directions in STC treatment over the past 25 years.

Methods/Interventions: We systematically retrieved publications related to STC and its treatment from the Web of Science Core Collection, covering January 1, 2000 to September 1, 2025. Bibliometric analysis and visualization were performed using VOSviewer and CiteSpace (with Excel for data handling) to evaluate publication trends and co-authorship, co-citation, and keyword co-occurrence networks. Keyword burst detection was used to identify emerging topics. Non-STC records and duplicates were excluded. Output and impact were summarized by countries/regions, institutions, journals, and authors, including citation counts and related influence metrics.

Results/Outcomes: This study incorporated 779 publications from 51 countries/regions and 244 research institutions. Over the past 25 years, annual publications on STC showed an overall upward trajectory with periodic fluctuations (Figure 1). China and the United States were the most productive contributors (Figure 2), with Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne identified as the leading institution(Figure 3). GASTROENTEROLOGY received the highest citation frequency (Figure 4), and Satish S. C. Rao (United States) was the most co-cited author (Figure 5). Keyword burst analysis demonstrated a shift from early emphasis on pathophysiology and traditional resectional surgery toward contemporary frontiers featuring sacral neuromodulation (SNM), refined surgical strategies, microbiota-targeted therapies, and novel selective prokinetics (Figure 6).

Conclusion/Discussion: Research on STC treatment is transitioning from mechanism-focused and resection-based paradigms toward precision, minimally invasive, and biologically targeted approaches. Neuromodulation and microbiota-directed interventions have emerged as central research avenues, alongside optimization of surgical indications and sequencing with medical therapy. Future priorities include prospective comparative studies with standardized endpoints (colonic transit metrics, bowel function and patient-reported outcomes, durability, and cost-effectiveness) and integration of neuroimmunology and microbiomics to enable personalized care.

Results of bibliometric analysis and visualization
(Figure 1) Publication output trend, (Figure 2) Cooperative relations of countries and regions, ( Figure 3) The relations of institutions, (Figure 4) The relations of cited journal, (Figure 5) The relations of cited author, (Figure 6) Keyword burst analysis