A bibliometric study of vascularized fibular grafting technique

Abstract

Aims: Vascularized fibula graft (VFG) technique is one of these “gold standard” techniques in bone regeneration. Although there have been several bibliometrics studies in orthopedics, there haven’t been any on VFGs. By identifying the gaps in previous research, we sought to provide light on the scientific evolution of VFGs and provide direction for future investigations. Methods: In this bibliometric study, the Web of Science (WOS) database was used to access publications on VFG published between 1986-2022. A literature search was performed with selected keywords. The dataset obtained was downloaded from the WOS database as an output. This output was analyzed with VOSviewer and Biblioshiny tools. Results: A total of 430 documents on VFG included the study. A mean of 11.9 articles/year was published on VFG. The first article on VFG published in 1986. Since 2005, there has been an increasing trend in the number of articles and citations. The year with the highest number of both publications (n=32) and citations (n=756) was 2021. The publications on VFG have cited a total of 7300 times, an average of 16.98 citations per publication. Total 51 countries contributed to publications on the VFG between 1986-2022. The United States of America (USA) was identified as the global leader in terms of the number of publications (n=91, 21.163%), followed by Japan (n=58, 13.488%) and China (n=56, 13.023%). The USA had 91 manuscripts and 2162 citations with an H-index:29 and Japan had 58 manuscripts and 1145 citations with an H-index:22. Conclusion: The literature on VFG is quite limited. Most of the publications are from developed countries. Studies should be supported for this method that can be used in the treatment of many diseases, especially in developing countries.

Keywords

• Publications
• bibliometric analysis
• vascularized fibular grafting

References

1. Bates P, Ramachandran M. In: Basic Orthopaedic Sciences. The Stanmore Guide. Ramachandran M, editor. London: Hodder Arnold; 2007. Bone injury, healing and grafting; pp. 123–34.
2. Einhorn TA. The cell and molecular biology of fracture healing. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 1998;355(Suppl): S7–21.
3. Dimitriou R, Jones E, McGonagle D, et al. Bone regeneration: current concepts and future directions. BMC Med. 2011;9:66. doi: 10.1186/1741-7015-9-66.
4. Shi LL, Garg R, Jawa A, et al. Bony Hypertrophy in Vascularized Fibular Grafts. Hand (NY). 2022;17(1):106-13. doi: 10.1177/1558944719895784.
5. Öztürk K, Baydar M, Alpay Y, et al. Clinical results of free vascularized fibula graft in the management of precollapse osteonecrosis of the femoral head: A retrospective clinical study. Acta Orthop Traumatol Turc. 2022;56(2):105-10. doi: 10.5152/j.aott.2022.21012.
6. Ünal MB, Cansu E, Parmaksızoğlu F, et al. Treatment of osteonecrosis of the femoral head with free vascularized fibular grafting: results of 7.6-year follow-up. Acta Orthop Traumatol Turc. 2016;50(5):501 506. 10.1016/j.aott.2016.01.001
7. Taylor GI, Miller GD, Ham FJ. The free vascularized bone graft. a clinical extension of microvascular techniques. Plast Reconstr Surg. 1975;55(5):533-44
8. Dinh P, Hutchinson BK, Zalavras C, et al. Reconstruction of osteomyelitis defects. Semin Plast Surg. 2009;23(2):108-18. doi: 10.1055/s-0029-1214163.

9. Campanacci DA, Totti F, Puccini S, et al. Intercalary reconstruction of femur after tumour resection: is a vascularized fibular autograft plus allograft a long-lasting solution? Bone Joint J. 2018;100-B(3):378-86. doi: 10.1302/0301-620X.100B3.BJJ-2017-0283.R2.
10. Ekici A, Alkan S, Aydemir S, et al. Trends in Naegleria fowleri global research: a bibliometric analysis study. Acta Trop. 2022;234:106603. doi: 10.1016/j.actatropica.2022.106603.
11. Özlü C, Ceylan G. Global trends in hemophilia research. Black Sea J Health Sci. 2022; 5(3): 519-525
12. Gökçe ON, Alkan S. Contribution of Turkey in liver transplant research: a scopus database search. Exp Clin Transplant. 2022. doi: 10.6002/ect.2021.0491.
13. Öztürk G. Toraks cerrahisi konusundaki yayınların global analizi ve Türkiye’nin katkısı. TOGÜ Sağlık Bilimleri Derg. 2022;2(1):39-50.
14. Özlü A. Bibliometric analysis of publications on pulmonary rehabilitation. Black Sea J Health Sci. 2022;5(2):219-225.
15. Alkan-Çeviker S, Öntürk H, Alıravcı ID, et al. Trends of COVID 19 vaccines: International collaboration and visualized analysis. Infect Dis Clin Microbiol. 2021;3:129-136.
16. Şahin S. Research trends and top cited articles on the frozen elephant trunk procedure. Genel Tıp Derg. 2022;32(6):740-745.
17. Akyüz HÖ, Alkan S, Gökçe ON. Overview on pressure ulcers studies based on bibliometric methods. Iberoam J Med. 2022;4(1):18-23.
18. Cheng Y, Yang H, Guan L, et al. Bibliometric and visualized analyses of research studies on different analgesics in the treatment of orthopedic postoperative pain. Pain Res Manag. 2022;2022:6835219. doi: 10.1155/2022/6835219.
19. Kurt M. Protez enfeksiyonları konulu bilimsel çıktıların analizi. Black Sea J Health Sci. 2023;6(1):34-39.
20. Aria M, Cuccurullo C. Bibliometrix: an R-tool for comprehensive science mapping analysis. J Informetrics. 2017;11(4):959-975.
21. Capanna R, Campanacci DA, Belot N, et al. A new reconstructive technique for intercalary defects of long bones: the association of massive allograft with vascularized fibular autograft. Long-term results and comparison with alternative techniques. Orthop Clin North Am. 2007;38(1):51-60. doi: 10.1016/j.ocl.2006.10.008.
22. Harwood N. Publication outlets and their effect on academic writers’ citations. Scientometrics. 2008:77;253–265.
23. Tahamtan I, Safipour Afshar A, Ahamdzadeh K. Factors affecting number of citations: a comprehensive review of the literature. Scientometrics. 2016;107:1195–1225. doi.org/10.1007/s11192-016-1889-2
24. Asghari S, Navimipour NJ. Nature inspired meta-heuristic algorithms for solving the service composition problem in the cloud environments. Int J Commun Systems. 2018;31:e3708.
25. Baik HU, Seo BK, Kim GR, et al. A keyword analysis study on postpartum obesity using big data. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021;18(16):8807. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18168807.
26. Li R, Sun J, Hu H, et al. Research trends of acupuncture therapy on knee osteoarthritis from 2010 to 2019: a bibliometric analysis. J Pain Res. 2020;13:1901-1913. doi: 10.2147/JPR.S258739.
27. Şahin S, Alkan S. Contribution of Turkey in heart transplant research: a web of science database search. Exp Clin Transplant. 2023. doi: 10.6002/ect.2022.0291.
28. Eward WC, Kontogeorgakos V, Levin LS, et al. Free vascularized fibular graft reconstruction of large skeletal defects after tumor resection. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2010;468(2):590-598. doi: 10.1007/s11999-009-1053-x.
29. Friedrich JB, Moran SL, Bishop AT, et al. Free vascularized fibular graft salvage of complications of long-bone allograft after tumor reconstruction. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2008;90(1):93-100. doi: 10.2106/JBJS.G.00551.