The 100 Most Impactful Papers in Hand Flexor Tendon Rehabilitation over the Last 25 Years: a Bibliometric Analysis

Purpose: The aim of this study is to identify and review the top 100 most cited papers on flexor tendon rehabilitation over the past 25 years. Also providing researchers with resources to achieve rapid, effective, and reliable results. Methods: A search was conducted in the WoS database using the keywords: "((ALL= (''flexor tendon'')) AND ALL= (kleinert OR duran OR place and hold OR early passive OR early active)) AND ALL=(rehabilitation)." The results were limited to articles and reviews published between 2000-2024, sorted in descending order by citation count. The studies were manually assessed, and irrelevant articles were excluded. The top 100 studies remaining after were selected for analysis. Results: Of the 100 studies analyzed, focused on both tendon repair and rehabilitation (n=52), specifically related to rehabilitation (n=48). Studies were randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing rehabilitation protocols (n=8). The country with the highest number of citations was the USA (n=1586), with the Journal of Hand Surgery - American Volume being the most cited journal (n=691). The most frequently used keyword was "rehabilitation" (n=22). The most cited author was Tang Jin Bo (n=559). Conclusion: The number of studies on flexor tendon rehabilitation, particularly RCTs, is limited. However, the existing RCTs have a high citation rate. The studies predominantly focus on the zone II population.