J Vasc Surg. 2021 Feb 13. pii: S0741-5214(21)00201-9. [Epub ahead of print]
OBJECTIVE: Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a highly prevalent disease that places major lifestyle limitations and mortality risk on affected individuals. As the understanding of the disease has grown in the medical community, it is unknown which literature has made the greatest impact on the knowledge of peripheral artery disease. We performed a bibliometric analysis using the number of citations as an indication of impact to analyze the top one hundred most influential articles on PAD management.METHODS: A retrospective search of the Web of Science (Thomson Reuters, New York, NY) database for English-only publications was conducted in November 2020. We identified initial references from the database using the search terms "Peripheral Arterial Disease", "Peripheral Vascular Disease", "Claudication", "Critical Limb Ischemia", "Chronic Limb Threatening Ischemia", "Rest Pain", "Ischemic Ulcer", "Toe Gangrene", "Ankle Brachial Index" and "Leg Ischemia" in Web of Science Core Collections. Articles were ranked based on the number of citations and then analyzed based on citation count and average number of citations per year. Additional metrics included the overall average number of publications per year, the journals, journal discipline, author (including degree and gender), institution, country, topic area, and the level of evidence.
RESULTS: The most popular articles were published between 1959 to 2017, with 46,716 citations in total (average 27.26 citations/year). The most popular article had 2225 citations in total and was Rutherford's "Recommended standards for reports dealing with lower extremity ischemia: Revised version". Peak years of citations were 2016, 2014, and 2018 (2,753, 2,674, and 2,639 citations, respectively). Top journals for the most cited publications were Circulation, Journal of Vascular Surgery, and the Lancet with 21, 13, and 7 articles respectively. A majority of articles originated from the United States (58 articles), followed by the United Kingdom (15 articles) and Germany (13 articles). Major topic areas of interest and trends in the progressive understanding of PAD were noted. Top areas of focus included surgical interventions (29%), therapeutic angiogenesis (15%), epidemiological studies in PAD (14%), and diagnosis and evaluation (13%). In the top cited literature, 48% (14/29) of surgical articles investigated endovascular interventions for peripheral artery disease.
CONCLUSIONS: Overall, PAD research has evolved from basic epidemiological studies to advanced management with continued investigation towards future, improved treatments for PAD.
Keywords: Claudication; Critical Limb Ischemia; Peripheral Artery Disease; Top Cited Literature