Knee Surg Relat Res.  2015 Sep;27(3):149-155. 10.5792/ksrr.2015.27.3.149.

Bibliometric Analysis of Orthopedic Literature on Total Knee Arthroplasty in Asian Countries: A 10-year Analysis

• Eom SH
• Bamne AB
• Chowdhry M
• Chae IS
• Kim TK

• KMID: 2223190
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5792/ksrr.2015.27.3.149

Abstract

PURPOSE
We aimed to determine the quantity and quality of research output of selected Asian countries in the field of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in the last 10 years.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Top 15 Asian countries were selected according to their gross domestic product. The Science Citation Index Expanded database was used to search for the literature published between 2004 and 2013 using "Total Knee Arthroplasty". The numbers of articles, journals and citations and the contribution of each country were analyzed. The articles were classified according to the type of study and the relative proportion of each type was analyzed.
RESULTS
Asian surgeons have increasingly contributed to orthopedic literature on TKA for the past 10 years, but the dominant contribution came from only a few countries. The total number of articles published by Asian countries increased by 261%, with Japan producing most of the studies and China showing the maximum growth rate. The majority of studies were published in low impact factor journals. Korea published the highest proportion of articles in high impact factor journals. Clinical papers were most frequent.
CONCLUSIONS
Our identification of research productivity pertaining to TKA among Asian countries gives a unique insight into the level of academic research in the field of TKA in these countries. There is a need to improve the quality of research to enhance the publishing power in high impact journals as well as the need for more basic research and epidemiological studies considering the unique differences among Asian patients undergoing TKA.

Keyword

Knee; Arthroplasty; Bibliometric analysis; Asia

MeSH Terms

Arthroplasty*
Asia
Asian Continental Ancestry Group*
Bibliometrics*
China
Efficiency
Gross Domestic Product
Humans
Japan
Knee*
Korea
Orthopedics*