The 50 Most Cited Articles in Meniscal Injury Research

BACKGROUND: Meniscal injuries are among the most common orthopaedic injuries, with a significant volume of published literature. PURPOSE: To perform a comprehensive bibliometric analysis that appropriately evaluates the 50 most cited articles in meniscal research. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: We performed a keyword search of the ISI Web of Knowledge database and then pared the results down to the 50 most cited articles using specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data extracted included title, first author, citation count, year of publication, topic, journal, article type, country of origin, and level of evidence. Correlation coefficients were calculated between publication date and citation density and between publication date and raw citation count. RESULTS: The 50 most cited articles were published from 1975 to 2013. The mean number of citations was 258.24 (range, 163-926; median, 225). The majority of articles were published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine (19%), the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (12%), and Arthritis & Rheumatology (14%). Most articles focused on either the anatomy and biomechanics of meniscal injury or on prevention and physical rehabilitation (12 papers each). CONCLUSION: The most popular fields of meniscal research involved anatomy/biomechanics and prevention/rehabilitation, and both are areas that will likely increase the probability of an article’s being highly cited in the future. This study provided a quality selection of the most cited articles on meniscal injury and may provide a foundation for both beginner and senior clinician readers for further discussion and research.