Surgical Outcomes and Tissue Repair Mechanisms following Anorectal Plasty for Rectovestibular Fistula and Related Pediatric Anorectal Malformations: A Bibliometric Analysis
Alisher Arintay, Makhmutbay Sanbayev, Assylzhan M. Messova, Igor V. Kirgizov
A
BSTRACT
Background:
Rectovestibular fistula (RVF) is one of the most common anorectal malformations in female children, requiring surgical correction via posterior sagittal anorectoplasty or anterior sagittal anorectoplasty. Despite the clinical significance of postoperative tissue repair and functional continence, no comprehensive bibliometric synthesis of this literature exists.
Objectives:
The objective of this study was to characterize the structure, trends, collaboration patterns, and thematic evolution of the scientific literature on surgical outcomes and tissue repair following anorectal plasty for RVF in female children.
Methods:
A systematic bibliometric search was conducted in Scopus and Web of Science using standardized multidomain search strings. The final dataset comprised 127 documents (2016–2026) from 48 sources. Analyses included productivity metrics, collaboration indicators, keyword co-occurrence, and thematic mapping, all conducted using Bibliometrix and R.
Results:
The corpus demonstrated an annual growth rate of 8%, a mean of 6.65 citations per document, and a mean document age of 4.53 years. Original articles dominated (92.1%;
Conclusions:
Research on anorectal plasty for RVF remains a niche yet active field, with growing interest in tissue engineering. International collaboration and translational mechanistic studies remain significantly underrepresented and warrant targeted research investment.