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Italian research on anterior cruciate ligament: a bibliometric analysis

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Abstract

Introduction

This study analysed the trend of publications on anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in Italy. It was hypothesised that publications on this topic have quickly increased in recent years due to increased knowledge of both clinical and radiological pathology.

Methods

PubMed and Scopus were accessed on 29/11/2023. This retrieved 838 articles from PubMed and 1050 from Scopus. We analysed the top 10 authors, and journals in publication numbers, citation numbers, and citations per year. We have also looked at the top 10 institutions publishing on anterior cruciate ligament from Scopus as PubMed does not give this information in the output. Data mining was performed using the Orange software, Mac version 3.32.0 (https://orangedatamining.com/) from the titles of all articles. A word cloud analysis of titles, authors, journals and universities was performed.

Results

The peak of citations was in 2017 with 1529, whilst the peak of publications was in 2019 with 59 articles published. Analysing the number of publications and citations for the journal, the most impacted journal is Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy with 5472 citations and 183 articles, followed by The American Journal of Sports Medicine, with 2722 citations and 56 articles and Arthroscopy with 1990 citations and 62 articles. Considering also international collaborations, the most cited author is Della Villa F. in 2020 with 43.67 citations per year. The Italian author with the major number of publications is Zaffagnini S. with 39 articles, whilst the author with the higher number of citations is Aglietti P. with 1612 citations.

Conclusions

ACL reconstruction has gained growing interest amongst the scientific community. Publications and citations presented a rising trend, the majority of the highly cited papers were contributed by few centres, and clinical trials were the most cited study designs. The long-term outcomes of ACL lesions have attracted interest. The authors hypothesised that shortly there will be an increase in articles analysing the results of ACL revisions, the use of lateral extra-articular tenodesis, and meniscus transplants.

Level of evidence IV

Cross-Sectional Study

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Data availability

All data and materials are available on reasonable request to Dr. Riccardo D’Ambrosi (riccardo.dambrosi@hotmail.it).

Abbreviations

ACL:

Anterior cruciate ligament

ACLR:

The anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction

References

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Acknowledgements

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRCCS Ospedale Galeazzi - Sant’Ambrogio, Milan, Italy

    Riccardo D’Ambrosi, Fabrizio Di Feo, Nicola Ursino & Laura Mangiavini

  2. Dipartimento Di Scienze Biomediche Per La Salute, Università Degli Studi Di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Riccardo D’Ambrosi & Laura Mangiavini

  3. Department of Orthopaedic, Trauma, and Reconstructive Surgery, RWTH University Medical Centre, Pauwelsstraße 30, 52074, Aachen, Germany

    Filippo Migliorini

  4. Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery, Academic Hospital of Bolzano (SABES-ASDAA), Teaching Hospital of the Paracelsus Medical University, 39100, Bolzano, Italy

    Filippo Migliorini

  5. Department of General Surgery and Medical Surgical Specialties, Section of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Surgery, AOU Policlinico-Vittorio Emanuele, University of Catania, Catania, Italy

    Fabrizio Di Maria

  6. Residency Programme in Orthopaedics and Traumatology, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    Filippo Maria Anghilieri

  7. Sri Dhaatri Orthopaedic, Maternity and Gynaecology Centre Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India

    Srinivas Bhaskara Seshachala Kambhampati

Authors
  1. Riccardo D’Ambrosi
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  2. Filippo Migliorini
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  3. Fabrizio Di Maria
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  4. Filippo Maria Anghilieri
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  5. Fabrizio Di Feo
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  6. Nicola Ursino
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  7. Laura Mangiavini
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  8. Srinivas Bhaskara Seshachala Kambhampati
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Contributions

RDA: Conceptualisation, writing, supervision, revision; FM: supervision, revision; FDM: supervision, revision; FMA: writing, revision; FDF: conceptualisation, supervision; NU: supervision, revision; LM: supervision, revision; KBS conceptualisation, writing, supervision, revision. All authors have agreed to the final version to be published and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Filippo Migliorini.

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D’Ambrosi, R., Migliorini, F., Di Maria, F. et al. Italian research on anterior cruciate ligament: a bibliometric analysis. Eur J Orthop Surg Traumatol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00590-024-03937-3

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