Objectives: This study aimed to analyze global publication trends, international collaboration networks, major research themes and emerging topics in pterygopalatine fossa (PPF) research using bibliometric methods. Methods: Publications were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection using the topic search TS=(“pterygopalatine fossa”) for English-language records published between 2000 and 2024.
Records whose primary document type was Article or Review were included, together with hybrid records additionally indexed as proceedings papers or book chapters. Full records with cited references were analyzed using Bibliometrix/Biblioshiny and VOSviewer. Publication trends, citation characteristics, productive authors, countries and journals, collaboration networks and keyword co-occurrence patterns were evaluated.Results: A total of 849 publications by 3,339 authors in 289 journals were analyzed.
The mean citation count per document was 16.85 and the international collaboration rate was 20.35%. Output rose markedly after 2018, peaking at 65 articles in 2024. The most productive journals were the Journal of Craniofacial Surgery, Laryngoscope and Surgical and Radiologic Anatomy. By correspondingauthor country, the United States ranked first with 241 documents, while Türkiye ranked seventh with 33 documents and seventh in total citations with 467 citations.
Keyword co-occurrence analysis of standardized author keywords identified 54 keywords forming six clusters.Conclusion: PPF research remained a steadily growing and active field between 2000 and 2024. Endoscopic approaches and skullbase surgery represent the principal research themes identified, and Türkiye ranks seventh in both publication output and total citations, indicating a meaningful contribution to the international literature.