Abstract
BackgroundNonunion continues to be the most frequent and challenging complication to treat following fracture fixation. Herein, we carried out a bibliometric analysis aiming to identify the key researchers, centres and research trends developed during the past 30 years in this important clinical condition.MethodsThe Science Citation Index Expanded database and the Web of Science Core Collection were interrogated for manuscripts published between 1990 and 2019 in the topic domain, utilising title, abstract, author keywords and KeyWords Plus. Overall, such citation indicators were used as TCyear, Cyear and CPPyear to help analyse the identified manuscripts.ResultsOver the prespecified period, there was a steady increase in the number of articles published in fracture nonunion. In total, 12 languages were the primary languages in the documents, with English being the most prevalent. The CPP sharply increased to reach a plateau in three full years and up to a peak in ten full years. A total of 8976 nonunion-related articles in Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) were published in 790 journals. The 8976 articles were published by 26,079 authors among 101 different countries. There is a slightly fluctuating steady increase of articles from 116 in 1991 to 201 in 2003, and thereafter, the number of articles sharply increased to reach a plateau in 2015. Seven possible main research foci in nonunion-related research were identified including: epidemiology, classification, aetiology, diagnosis/prediction, treatment modalities, functional outcomes and health economics.ConclusionsThis bibliometric analysis revealed information on citation number, publication outputs, categories, journals, institutions, countries, research highlights and tendencies. The current research activity on fracture nonunion identified key opinion leaders and leading research institutions focusing on this important clinical condition. It is hoped that the informed included will aid to guide research work in the foreseeable future.
Highlights
Failure of fracture healing with resultant nonunion remains a very challenging but potentially devastating complication following fracture surgery and has an estimated incidence of about 5–10% [1]
The orthopaedic community has remained active in addressing this challenge, it appears that fracture nonunion
Data were retrieved from the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) in the Web of Science Core Collection by Clarivate Analytics and last updated on 10th February 2021
Summary
Failure of fracture healing with resultant nonunion remains a very challenging but potentially devastating complication following fracture surgery and has an estimated incidence of about 5–10% [1]. Bibliometric citation analysis is an established evidencebased method of mapping the literature and identifying prominent researchers and research units that have developed a particular interest in a specific topic or condition and has been commonly used in orthopaedic surgery [3]. The aim of this study is to carry out a quantitative description of the literature on nonunion manuscripts published until now and to gather information on institutions, journals, researchers, countries, Web of Science categories and research directions. We carried out a bibliometric analysis aiming to identify the key researchers, centres and research trends developed during the past 30 years in this important clinical condition
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