The 100-most Cited Articles About Craniectomy and Hemicraniectomy: A Bibliometric Analysis

Craniectomy is a life-saving procedure used in the setting of traumatic brain injury(, )stroke and increased intracranial pressure. The purpose of this study was to analyze and determine the most influential articles and authors in the field of craniectomy. Our study presents an analysis of the articles that include the word "craniectomy" or "hemicraniectomy" in the title and a detailed analysis of the top 100-cited articles in that selection. This search provided insight into how this procedure was initially documented and how it has been utilized over the years. We used the SCOPUS database to search “craniectomy OR hemicraniectomy” in the article title. We then sorted the top 100 most-cited articles. Bibliometric analysis was performed. An H-index was presented with each author. The citation count ranged from 71 to 5310. The most published author was Werner Hacke, a German researcher (n=6). The highest quantity of influential work was published in 2006 and 2007 (n=9/yr). The United States published the most articles (n=42). The Journal of Neurosurgery published 21 of the top 100 most-cited articles. The chronological timeline shows the evolution of decompression as it related to both stroke and trauma. It demonstrated that well-cited articles acted as turning points to direct further scientific endeavors while highlighting the hard work of certain authors. There is, to the best of our knowledge, a shortage of literature on a bibliometric analysis regarding the term craniectomy. Thus, the current bibliometric study was undertaken to highlight the work of authors who have advanced knowledge about this procedure. It provides an analysis of the top 100-cited articles with craniectomy in the title with dates ranging from 1892 to 2016. A review of its publication history shows how interventions in this field have advanced over the last several decades.