Bibliometric analysis of scientific literature on biopsy of sentinel lymph nodes in patients with thyroid gland cancer

Biopsy of sentinel lymphatics has reliably entered the guidelines for diagnosing and treating many malignant neoplasms, but the situation in patients with thyroid cancer remains debatable.Objective. The purpose of the work is the search, bibliometric analysis, and generalization of scientific literature data to study the prognostic value and features of regional metastasis of highly differentiated forms of thyroid cancer, as well as the study of sentinel lymph node biopsy techniques.Materials and methods. Two hundred forty-two literature sources containing information on sentinel lymph node biopsy in patients with papillary and follicular thyroid cancer were examined. The data search was conducted in the electronic databases of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar using the following key terms: "thyroid cancer," "sentinel lymph node biopsy," and "dyes." Using visualization tools and modern citation metrics SciVal (Scopus) with the application of an online platform for monitoring and analyzing international scientific research, it was possible to perform a bibliometric analysis. Bibliometric networks were constructed and visualized using VOSviewer.Results and conclusions. Regional metastasis can occur both in stages and with the omission of the predicted department. Lymph nodes of the ipsilateral central department occupy the first place in damage frequency.Regional metastasis is recognized as a negative prognostic factor for the development of locoregional recurrence of the disease. The mortality rate increases only in risk factors such as age <45 years, bulky thyroid tumor, and involvement of up to 6 metastatic lymph nodes. The main criterion for the effectiveness of the contrast during sentinel lymph node biopsy is the negative predictive value and the false negative rate. According to the bibliographic analysis, interest in sentinel lymph node biopsy in patients with thyroid cancer continues to grow from 1998 to the present. With the help of the VOSviewer bibliometric network visualization tool, it was possible to analyze 242 scientific articles.