Thyroid eye disease in the biologic era: a 40-year paradigm shift in nonsurgical therapeutic strategies

Over the last four decades, there has been a progressive increase in the number of publications and citations on research related to thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) nonsurgical treatment across many countries/regions, institutions, and authors, with a special focus on biological immunotherapy. Examing 1600 publications collected from the Web of Science Core Collection database on TAO research from 1983 to 2023, our bibliometric analysis evaluated various bibliometric indicators, among which some important subtopics were identified and further discussed and reviewed. The study showed that novel insights into the pathogenesis of TAO and new immunological targets for nonsurgical treatments were the major research focus over the past 40 years. Especially, targeted biological immunotherapies were on the rise, promoting treatments efficacy and patients’ quality of life. Our study provided a thorough overview and visual presentation of the evolutionary landscape and emerging frontiers for nonsurgical treatment of TAO surrounding its immunological mechanism and therapeutic strategy. It also shed light on its global collaboration patterns, current trends and research hotspots, hopefully to facilitate collaborative initiatives and guiding future research.