Fuzzy Approach for Bibliometric Analysis of Publication Trends on Intragastric Balloon as a Minimally Invasive Procedure for Weight Loss in Obese Individuals

In this paper, we perform Bibliometric assessment of research output that has been carried out pertaining to the literature on intragastric balloon (IGBs) as a treatment modality of morbid obesity. To do this, we conducted a bibliometric analysis on this topic using the growth of publications, publication trends over time, annual research productivity and authors’ activity as main outcome points. Furthermore, we validate the comparable applicability of Lotka’s law among authors with a single publication and those with multiple ones using a fuzzy approach. The analysis shows that publication trend follows Price’s law. The extracted trend is exponential and in accordance with what is found in other studies. Lotka’s formula using one and two publications, is found to hold but for mean \( x = 3.025 \).