Areas of research and clinical approaches to the study of liver abscess

AIM: To analyze the research activity on liver abscess (LA) and identify the main topic clusters in the area. METHODS: We identified all documents using the medical subject heading "LA" indexed in the MEDLINE database between 2001 and 2015. We performed a descriptive bibliometric analysis, characterizing the evolution of scientific activity, the publication types of the documents, the document categories of clinical interest (case reports, clinical trials, evaluation studies, meta-analysis, observational studies, practice guidelines and validation studies) and the geographic distribution of the research. We also carried out an analysis of networks and research clusters in order to identify the main topic areas of research. RESULTS: infections (including bacteremia). CONCLUSION: Clinical case reports associated with diagnosis and treatment are the main topic of study, highlighting the importance of this document type in advancing knowledge.