The Fifty Most-cited Articles in Shoulder Arthroplasty

Abstract

Background: Citation analyses are often used as a measurement of an article’s impact in a specific field of study. Clinically, shoulder arthroplasty has been a rapidly growing field, and there has been ample research done on it in the past few decadesThe purpose of this study is to determine the 50 most cited articles in shoulder arthroplasty and their characteristics. Methods: The Science Citation Index Expanded was searched for citations of articles related to shoulder arthroplasty (including total shoulder, reverse shoulder arthroplasty, and hemiarthroplasty) published in the 72 journals in the category “Orthopedics”. The 50 most cited articles were determined and the following characteristics were analyzed in each article: authors, journal, year of publication, country of origin, number of citations, citation density (total number of citations/years since publication), article type (clinical or basic science), article subtype via study design and level of evidence. Results: The number of citations ranged from 594 to 104, with citation density ranging from 28.8 to 4.1. The 50 most cited articles in shoulder arthroplasty were published in 6 of the 72 journals, most from 1970s to 2010s and represented by 10 countries. The articles were composed of 7 study designs with the most common being case series and 7 topics within shoulder arthroplasty. The most common level of evidence was IV (35 out of 50 studies). Conclusions: Articles with the highest citation density were those discussing reverse shoulder arthroplasty. The top 50 list provides residents, fellows and researchers with a comprehensive list of the major academic contributions to shoulder arthroplasty.