关键词: 强直性脊柱炎, 中医外治法, 研究热点, 研究趋势, 可视化分析, CiteSpace

Abstract: Objective To analyze the current research status，hotspots，and trends in treating ankylosing spondylitis（AS）by external therapies of Traditional Chinese Medicine based on CiteSpace. Methods The research literature on treating AS by external therapies of Traditional Chinese Medicine included in CNKI，VIP，Wanfang，and China Biomedical Literature Database of CNKI from January 2003 to December 2022 were selected. The authors，institutions，and keywords of the relevant literature were subjected to visual clustering and co-occurrence analyses using CiteSpace 5.8R3 software. Results A total of 1 099 articles were included，with a general upward trend in articles′ number in the previous period and a slight decrease in recent years，forming several research groups centered on scholars such as Tian Yuansheng，Yang Jiguo，and Liu Jian，as well as core research institutes such as Henan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine，Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine， and so on. Hot keywords mainly included herbal fumigation， supervision， acupuncture，and clinical efficacy，and 18 clusters had been formed. The current research in this field mainly focuses on acupuncture and herbal fumigation. Conclusion The research related to treating AS with external Chinese medicine is wide-ranging. However，the cooperation between institutions and teams needs to be closer，and there are still problems，such as more clinical research and relatively insufficient basic research. In recent years，the research hotspot has gradually shifted from the clinical efficacy of external therapies such as acupuncture，moxibustion，and herbal fumigation to studying the mechanism of external therapies in Chinese medicine for treating AS. The action mechanism of regulating inflammatory factors by dugu moxibustion， fire dragon moxibustion，and acupuncture may be the hotspot and trend of future research.

Key words: ankylosing spondylitis, external therapies of Traditional Chinese Medicine, research hotspots, research trends, visualisation and analysis, CiteSpace