Trends in Anterior Cruciate Ligament Repair: A Bibliometric and Visualized Analysis

Abstract

Background: Bibliometrics is a methodology that measures the scientific output of an author, institution, or country. Visualized analysis is the transformation of data into visible form by software, highlighting important features, including commonalities and anomalies, allowing users to easily and quickly perceive significant aspects of their data. Purpose: To conduct a bibliometric analysis of the literature on anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) repair, with visualization of trends, in order to identify the areas of interest and the primary researchers involved in ACL repair. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Methods: The PubMed database was queried on April 14, 2022, for publications that reported on ACL repair from 1960 onward. The initial search resulted in 1392 publications. Filter settings were applied to remove publications with weak correlation, such as those on meniscal repair and ACL reconstruction. Publication information, citations, authors, commonly used terms, and affiliated institutions and countries were analyzed by VOSviewer and Python. Results: A total of 553 articles were included for analysis. Three techniques were visualized: bridge-enhanced ACL repair, internal brace, and dynamic intraligamentary stabilization. The most published authors were Martha Murray (51 articles), Gregory Difelice (35 articles), and Braden Fleming (31 articles). The most cited article was “Collagen–Platelet Rich Plasma Hydrogel Enhances Primary Repair of the Porcine Anterior Cruciate Ligament” by Murray et al. The journals with the most publications on ACL repair were the American Journal of Sports Medicine (n = 49); Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy (n = 49); and Arthroscopy (n = 48). The top 3 institutions by publication number were the Hospital for Special Surgery (n = 51), Boston Children’s Hospital (n = 49), and Brown University (n = 31), with the most publications coming from the United States (n = 242), Germany (n = 83), and the United Kingdom (n = 47). Conclusion: The results demonstrate that the research on ACL repair comes from a small number of authors and corresponding institutions; the top sports medicine journals and the developed countries have an interest in this topic.

Development trends of intra-articular injection in arthroscopic treatment: A bibliometric visualization study from 2000 to 2024

“…Information including annual publications and journal distributions was obtained from the WoS database, and the chart of annual publications was generated using Origin Pro 2023. We chose VOSviewer 1.6.18 software to batch import Chinese and English literature data and dynamically adjust the author's publication value to achieve the best display effect [29]. We chose Overlay Visualization and Network Visualization for visualization and analysis.…”

Anatomic Arthroscopic Primary Repair of Proximal Anterior Cruciate Ligament Tears

“…In the past decade, a resurgence in contemporary selective ACL preservation has been noted. 1 Several techniques to preserve the ACL have been proposed, including suture anchor and cortical button fixation, additional suture augmentation (SA) or dynamic intraligamentary stabilization (DIS), and bridge-enhanced ACL restoration (BEAR). 5 However, a common thread toward the restoration of important anatomical properties is missing when analyzing available techniques.…”

“…Arthroscopic Contemporary selective arthroscopic anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) preservation has seen a general resurgence of interest worldwide, 1 , 2 , 3 and an increasing number of surgeons are using various techniques to preserve the native ACL and its proprioceptive function in patients with proximal ACL tears. 4 Recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses of short to mid-term follow-up, 4 , 5 , 6 and comparative trials comparing ACL preservation versus ACL reconstruction, 7 , 8 , 9 indicate that ACL preservation shows comparable or better functional outcomes, as compared to ACL reconstruction, with similar or slightly higher failure rates.…”

The impact of surgical randomised controlled trials on the management of FAI syndrome: a citation analysis

“…Ultimately, citation analyses allow researchers to assess if publications on a certain topic are resonating with clinicians. Bibliometric analyses have been commonly conducted in orthopaedic sports medicine across various indications including anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries [35], shoulder instability [1], cartilage injuries [19] and patellar tendon injuries [11]. Whilst prior bibliometric analyses have been conducted in the field of FAIS [4, 14, 51], none have solely focussed on RCTs assessing surgical management.…”