Top 25 cited articles on Covid-19 and IBD: A bibliometric analysis

OBJECTIVES: The use of citation analysis to identify the most cited Covid-19 and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) manuscripts to provide an insight into the advances and knowledge accumulated regarding the pandemic in this subgroup of patients. METHODS: We've used a public application programming interface (API) U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) to access the PubMed database. Data lock was performed on April 19, 2022. The API was used to retrieve all available IBD AND Covid-19 -related entries. For each retrieved entry, we've also obtained its citation count. RESULTS: The top 25 manuscripts were published between 2020 and 2021. The total citation count is 2051. The citation count of articles ranged from 41 to 313. The top 25 manuscripts were published in eight journals, while 16 were published in Gastroenterology and Gut. 36% of the most cited manuscripts reported clinical characteristics and patient outcomes, and 32% dealt with patient management. The most impactful manuscripts provided evidence that IBD patients are not at increased risk for severe morbidity or mortality from Covid-19 and that it is not advisable to discontinue the anti-inflammatory treatment for IBD during the pandemic. Two basic science studies demonstrated mechanistic insights for these observations. Studies that examined the immunogenic response of IBD patients treated with biologics were also part of the top-cited list. CONCLUSIONS: Impactful scientific publications on Covid-19 in IBD patients provided reassurance and directed treatment at the time of this newly recognized severe disease.