AIM: To analyze and reveal the researching hot topics of traumatic optic neuropathy(TON), the trend of published TON related articles and focal points between different countries and agencies in the world.

METHODS: Candidate publications from January 2000 to August 2012 were collected by searching PubMed with the MeSH word ‘traumatic optic neuropathy' and without language restriction. Bibliometric techniques used in this study included a statistical analysis of publication counts by authors, countries and journals and a co-word cluster analysis of highly-frequent MeSH/subheadings words.

RESULTS: Totally 785 articles about TON were indexed in PubMed. The United States, the United Kingdom and China were the largest three producers about TON. English was the top language. Levkovitch-Verbin H published 9 papers and ranked the top, followed by Lorber B. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science published 52 papers and ranked the top. 32 highly-frequent MeSH/subheadings words for more than 12 times occurrences in the papers about TON were extracted for cluster analysis. These words were classified into 6 aspects:(1)Surgery therapy for TON;(2)Physiopathology of optic nerve injury;(3)Pathological appearance and diagnosis of TON;(4)Animal model and drug therapy for TON;(5)Etiology of TON.

CONCLUSION: Slow growth has occurred in the research field of TON. The United States and the United Kingdom are the top 2 countries in this field. The international main research focus included 5 aspects. This study results provide important reference for domestic scholars in TON correlated scientific study and clinic therapy.