Top 100 most cited articles on anterior cervical discectomy and fusion

Front Surg. 2022 Sep 6:9:1000360. doi: 10.3389/fsurg.2022.1000360. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Zhiyu Ding¹, Yijun Ren², Hongqing Cao³, Jinsong Li³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Orthopaedics, The Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
² Department of Neurology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
³ Department of Spine Surgery, The Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.

Abstract

Study design: Bibliometric analysis.

Objective: Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) is a typical surgical method in spine surgery and has progressed significantly in the last several decades. The purpose of this study is to determine how the 100 most-cited original articles on ACDF have been the most influential in this field by identifying and analyzing them.

Methods: The articles on ACDF were identified by searching the Thomson ISI Web of Science database on 30 May 2022. The 100 most-cited articles were selected according to specific criteria. The data extracted from the articles included title, publication date, total citations, journal name, first author, institutions, and keywords.

Results: The total number of citations was 13,181, with a mean number of 131.81 ± 100.18. The publication dates ranged from 1994 to 2018. Most of these articles originated in the United States (68%) and were published in the 2000s (32%) and 2010s (48%). Spine published most of the articles (30%), followed by the Journal of Neurosurgery-Spine (16%), Spine Journal (14%), and European Spine Journal (13%). The most prolific author was Dr. Todd J Albert (n = 7), with 1,312 citations. The Texas Back Institute was the most productive institution (n = 10). The keywords ACDF, cervical spine, cervical spine, and fusion showed the highest degree of centrality.

Conclusion: One hundred top-cited articles on ACDF were identified and analyzed in this study. We demonstrate that ACDF is a growing and popular area of research, with the focus of research varying through timeline trends. This will provide a comprehensive and detailed basis for spine surgeons to make clinical decisions and assimilate the research focus of cervical spine surgery.

Keywords: ACDF; anterior cervical discectomy and fusion; bibliometric analysis; most cited articles; top 100.