COVID-19 and urology: A bibliometric analysis of the literature.

ABSTRACT

AIM: The aims of this research were to analyse the urological literature published during the COVID-19 pandemic and to guide future research. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Between 2019 and 2021, the Web of Science (WoS) All Databases collection was searched for publications related to COVID-19 and Urology. The keywords used during this search were coronavirus-19, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, novel coronavirus, 2019-nCoV, pandemic and/or urology. The top 50 cited (T50) publications were also identified and summarized. Exported Microsoft Excel files, Visualization of Similarities viewer (VOSviewer) software and descriptive assessment were used for bibliometric and statistical analyses of the publications. RESULTS: In total, 582 publications related to COVID-19 and urology were identified. In these publications, the most active author, journal, country and organisation were Francesco Porpiglia, European Urology, the United States of America (USA) and La Paz University Hospital, respectively. The most commonly used keywords were telemedicine-telehealth, SARS-CoV-2, coronavirus, pandemic, residency, testicle, semen, kidney transplantation, endourology and surgery. The most worrying issues in the articles are the negative impact of COVID-19 on resident training and permanent damage to urological organs. CONCLUSIONS: We analysed all the articles related to COVID-19 and urology published to date in the WoS All Databases collection. The most commonly published articles were based on clinical and outpatient practice, telemedicine, residency training, transplantation, and testicles. The long-term adverse effects of the pandemic on urology practice and especially urological organs will need to be assessed further in future research.