Treatment and Patient-Related Concepts in Chronic Scrotal Pain: A Bibliometric and Content Analysis of PubMed Publications

Authors:
Open Access
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Chronic scrotal pain can affect daily life, sexual function, and psychological well-being. We examined publication characteristics and dictionary-defined treatment and patient-related terminology in titles and abstracts. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional bibliometric study with exploratory dictionary-based content analysis of PubMed records retrieved using a consolidated search on 31 October 2026, retaining a publication-date cutoff of 10 September 2026 and using OpenAlex citation and affiliation metadata from 31 October 2026. Following the initial assessment, two urologists independently assessed eligibility for a stratified sample of 85 records and concept coding for a stratified sample of 60 publications during revision. Performance of the unchanged dictionary was evaluated against the manual codes for these 60 publications. Seven overlapping categories were assessed in combined titles and abstracts of publications with abstracts. Sensitivity analyses varied eligibility scope and publication types; the original and consolidated datasets were also compared. Results: Of 421 screened journal records, 278 publications from 1979–2026 formed the core corpus. OpenAlex matched 275 publications, with 5216 citations and a corpus h-index of 39. The United States contributed to 131 publications; international collaboration occurred in 23/252 publications with country data (9.1%). Among 232 publications with abstracts, the dictionary matched treatment/management expressions in 84.5%, pain scales/scores in 24.6%, quality of life/function in 18.5%, psychosocial/mental health in 12.9%, sexual symptoms/function in 8.2%, satisfaction/global improvement in 3.9%, and recurrence/durability/reintervention in 11.2%. Treatment/management generated the highest dictionary-match frequency across sensitivity analyses (78.0–82.6%). Internal evaluation showed category-dependent sensitivity, including 22.2% for satisfaction/global improvement and 29.6% for recurrence/durability/reintervention. Conclusions: In this exploratory analysis, the broad treatment/management category generated the most dictionary matches. Unequal category breadth and sensitivity limit direct comparisons; infrequent or absent title/abstract matches do not establish that patient-centered outcomes were unmeasured, inadequately assessed, or unreported in the full text.

This publication has 31 references indexed in Scilit: