Research Activities of Spinal Fusion in Various Subspecialties by Different Surgeons: A Bibliometric Study

To conduct a scientometric assessment of the research activities of spinal fusion in various subspecialties carried out by different surgeons.

All articles regarding spinal fusion research on Web of Science from the year 1994 to 2015 were identified and analyzed in the following aspects: year of publication, publication journal, number of times cited, Hirsch index (H-index), spine surgeon specialty, and country/territory.

A total of 15060 articles were identified, and the research productivity of spinal fusion has grown steadily over the last two decades. The average research productivity of spinal fusion each year was 109.09 ± 23.26 articles for cervical spine, 90.09 ± 52.56 articles for thoracic spine, and 304.91 ± 181.63 articles for lumbar. The research productivity of spinal fusion by neurosurgeons was 9474 articles published, while the orthopedic surgeons published 8263 articles. The average number of citations for spinal fusion articles was 19.61 times for neurosurgeons, and 20.36 times for orthopedic surgeons. In most countries neurosurgoens published more spinal fusion articles than orthopedic surgeons or at least the same amount, but orthopedic surgeons in China and Germany published far more spinal fusion articles ( > 100) than neurosurgeons. The United States published the greatest number of articles (6819/15060, 45.28%), followed by China (1280/15060, 8.50%) and Germany (1252/15060, 8.31%), and had the highest total citations (164378) and H-index (144).

Neurosurgeons tend to publish more articles regarding spinal fusion, but orthopedic surgeons seem to have higher citations. North America, West Europe and East Asia were the most productive regions in spinal fusion research, and the United States made the most academic contributions to this area.