The 50 Most Cited Articles on Meniscus Injuries and Surgery from 2000 to 2019 Focus on Arthroscopic Repair or Removal, Originate from Institutions Within the United States and Were Published Before 2010

PURPOSE: To identify the 50 most cited original articles on meniscus injury and surgery from 2000 to 2019, and to perform a bibliometric analysis of the identified articles. METHODS: A Clarivate Web of Science search, completed in June 2020, generated a list of the most cited articles related to meniscus research. Articles were sorted by number of times cited, and review articles or those unrelated to the meniscus were removed. Articles were classified as basic science or assigned the appropriate level of evidence. Extracted data included title, authors, journal, year of publication, country/institution of origin, total number of citations, and number of citations per year. RESULTS: The final list of 50 included articles with a range of 106 to 490 citations and a mean of 162.34 total or 11.91 citations per year. The most cited articles appeared in 8 of the most influential journals in the field per the Journal Citation Index. Twenty-nine (58%) originated from institutions within the United States, and only 13 (26%) were published in 2010 or later. Overall, 25 (50%) were classified as therapeutic, only 5 (10%) were therapeutic randomized controlled studies, and 17 (34%) were basic science. “Arthroscopic meniscal repair or meniscectomy” appeared most frequently, with 16 (32%) falling into this subclassification. CONCLUSION: This study of the most cited meniscus articles showed a strong predominance for therapeutic studies, studies generated and published within the United States, and studies focused on topics of arthroscopic repair or removal. Overwhelmingly, included articles were published before 2010, affirming the criticism that bibliometric analysis favors older articles. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: This study provides information about which articles are driving the field relating to meniscus injuries and meniscus surgery in the last two decades.