Bibliometric Analysis of the Worldwide Scientific Production on Periapical Lesions in Veterinary Medicine: Visualization, Emerging Patterns, and Thematic Evolution

To conduct a bibliometric mapping of the global scientific production of periapical lesions in veterinary medicine by evaluating collaborative networks, emerging patterns, and spatiotemporal dynamics. Documents published between 1986 and 2024 that addressed topics related to periapical lesions in the veterinary field were included. Articles, reviews, book chapters, and books containing specific key terms in their titles or abstracts, such as “periapical abscess,” “periapical infection,” and “periapical pathology,” were selected. Documents unrelated to the veterinary field, duplicates, and those that did not provide relevant information were excluded. The search was conducted in Scopus on December 28, 2024, using a specific search formula. The data selection and extraction process was conducted using RStudio and the Bibliometrix package, and VOSviewer was used for the co-occurrence analysis of keywords. Lotka’s law, Bradford’s law, and thematic evolution were applied for data analysis. The study covered the period from 1986 to 2024 and analyzed 95 documents from 37 sources with an annual growth rate of 2.93%. The average age of the documents was 12.2 years, with an average of 13.96 citations per document and 2345 references. A total of 280 authors participated, with only 15 single-author documents and an average of 3.83 co-authors per document. International collaborations accounted for 11.58% of the total. The most productive journals were the “Journal of Comparative Pathology” and the “Journal of Veterinary Dentistry.” Research in veterinary dentistry showed a significant increase between 2012 and 2024, highlighting topics such as dental pathology and periapical infection. The keyword co-occurrence analysis revealed four main clusters: “Dental pathology,” “Dog,” “Horse,” and “Root canal treatment.” The field of dental pathology holds significant promise for continued research, especially in the creation of innovative treatments and therapeutic applications for animal dental issues. Global collaborations and the identification of thematic clusters offer a robust framework for steering future research toward emerging and impactful areas.