The most influential papers in unicompartmental knee arthroplasty

Area of Science:

• Orthopedic Surgery
• Biomedical Engineering
• Clinical Research

Background:

• Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) is a key treatment for anteromedial knee osteoarthritis.
• Global utilization of UKA procedures has seen a consistent rise in recent decades.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and rank the 50 most frequently cited scientific articles concerning unicompartmental knee arthroplasty.
• To analyze the characteristics of influential UKA research.

Main Methods:

• A comprehensive search of the Web of Science database was conducted using defined terms.
• The top 50 most cited articles on UKA were identified and ranked by citation count.
• Analysis included journal, publication year, citations, origin, article type, and evidence level.

Main Results:

• The 50 most cited articles received up to 453 citations.
• The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (British volume) published the majority of these influential papers.
• Most articles were published in the 2000s and 2010s, with the UK contributing the most (17 papers).
• The majority of studies were classified as Clinical Science (33 papers) and reported Level IV evidence.

Conclusions:

• Highly cited unicompartmental knee arthroplasty literature predominantly consists of clinical studies with a low level of evidence.
• A scarcity of basic science studies in the top-cited articles suggests commercial entities drive much of the product development in this field.