AccScience Publishing / STI / Volume 46 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.36922/sti.0431
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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Global Research Trends and Therapeutic Evolution in Interventional Therapies for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia

Zhengxiang Shen1 ,  Junwei Liao2 ,  Hui Wang3 ,  Basen Li4*
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1 Key Laboratory of Archival Intelligent Development and Service, National Archives Administration of China, Wuhan, Hubei, China
2 Key Laboratory of Archival Intelligent Development and Service, School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, China
3 Department of Medical Ultrasound, The Central Hospital of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Enshi, Hubei, China
4 Department of Radiology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wu¬han, Hubei, China
STI 2026, 46(1), 0431 https://doi.org/10.36922/sti.0431
Received: 12 December 2025 | Revised: 27 February 2026 | Accepted: 8 April 2026 | Published online: 3 June 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Background: Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) imposes a significant global health burden. Although interventional therapies have rapidly evolved toward minimally invasive options, a systematic evaluation of research trends, international collaboration, and shifting clinical priorities is lacking.

Methods: We conducted a bibliometric analysis of 2,523 BPH intervention–related ar­ticles published between 1985 and 2024, retrieved from the Web of Science. VOSviewer was used for co-authorship and keyword mapping, and n-gram extraction tracked the­matic evolution over four decades.

Results: The analysis revealed four major developmental phases in BPH interventional therapy research: (i) the rise and decline of transurethral microwave thermotherapy, (ii) the emergence of prostatic artery embolization, (iii) the introduction of prostat­ic urethral lift, and (iv) the clinical uptake of water vapor thermal therapy. Keyword co-occurrence analysis revealed shifts in therapeutic focus from bulk tissue ablation to function-sparing, outpatient-compatible procedures. Citation bursts and n-gram trend modeling pinpointed inflection points of innovation, particularly between 2010 and 2020. Geographically, North America and western Europe dominated research output, with Brazil and China gaining momentum post-2010. Collaboration network analysis highlighted the University of São Paulo, Mayo Clinic, and Imperial College London as key hubs. Journal of Urology remained the most influential publication outlet. Despite the growing diversity of minimally invasive options, gaps remain in economic evaluation and equitable access, especially in lower-resource settings.

Conclusion: This study offers a nuanced, quantitative overview of BPH therapeutic research.

Keywords
Benign prostatic hyperplasia
Interventional therapy
Bibliometric analysis
Therapeutic evolution
Research trends
Funding
This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (No. 2022CFB217).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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