Influential articles on shoulder arthroplasty: a bibliometric and visualized study.

Abstract

Shoulder arthroplasty is a notable area with research interest in orthopedics owing to the increasing global demand and technical development. Over the past decades, many articles on shoulder arthroplasty have been published. However, little is known about the characteristics and evaluation of these articles. The objective of this study is to identify and analyze the top 100 cited literatures in shoulder arthroplasty research field. Publications on shoulder arthroplasty from inception to 2022 were retrieved from Web of Science. Top 100 publications were defined by the number of citations. Characteristics of the top 100 cited literatures were recorded and analyzed. Visualized study was performed using VOSviewer software. The top 100 cited articles were published between 1981 and 2018. The 2000s was the most productive decade. Citation number per article ranged from 822 to 103. Leading countries were the United States followed by France and Switzerland. Surgical technique was the most highlighted theme. The most common evidence level was level III. Co-occurrence analysis clustered the keywords into five clusters: infection, fracture, osteoarthritis, perioperative complications, and prosthesis design. Characteristics of influential articles on shoulder arthroplasty were thoroughly analyzed. Most studies focused on surgical techniques and perioperative complications with the marked deficiency of high evidence level.