Top 75 most-cited articles in hand microsurgery: A bibliometric and visualised analysis

Hand microsurgery is an important advancement of the speciality that has improved outcomes in hand trauma and hand surgical conditions. This bibliometric analysis aims to identify the 75 most cited hand microsurgery articles and explore their relevance to contemporary practice.

The Web of Science core collection database was used to screen and identify the top 75 most-cited articles relevant to hand microsurgery. VOSviewer 1.6.18 and CiteSpace 6.2.R4 software were used to analyse and visualise occurrences, authorship, countries, institutions, journals, keywords, and Evidence Level (Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine).

The initial search identified 3024 articles. The top 75 most-cited articles were published between 1980 and 2018, with contributions from 291 authors. Professor Fu Chang Wei from Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taiwan, was the most prolific author. Articles originated from 14 countries, with the United States leading (29.3 %), followed by Taiwan (14.6 %), Italy (8.0 %), and Germany (8.0 %). The 75 most-cited articles were published in 22 journals, led by Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, followed by the Journal of Hand Surgery (American Volume) and Microsurgery. A total of 345 keywords were analysed, with "Hand," "Defects," "Reconstruction," and "Regeneration" being the most frequent. Level of Evidence 4 was most common (40 %), followed by Levels 3 (25 %) and 5 (24 %).

The top 75 most-cited hand microsurgery articles influence current surgical practice and teaching material. Understanding specific surgical techniques in hand microsurgery and examining their outcomes will benefit patients, surgeons, researchers and policymakers alike.