Minimally-invasive cardiac surgery. A bibliometric analysis: A tool to identify key research and facilitate advances training

Background: The number of citations an article receives is a marker of its scientific influence within a particular specialty. This bibliometric analysis intended to recognise the top 100 cited articles in Minimally-invasive Cardiac Surgery, to determine the fundamental subject areas that have borne considerable influence upon clinical practice and academic knowledge. This is increasingly relevant in a continually advancing specialty and one where minimally-invasive cardiac procedure have the potential for huge benefits to patient outcomes. Methods: The Thompson Reuters Web of Science citation index database was searched with the following terms: [Minimal* AND Invasive* AND Card* AND Surg*]. Results were limited to full text English language manuscripts and ranked by citation number. Further analysis of the top 100 cited articles was carried out according to subject, author, publication year, journal, institution and country of origin. Results: A total of 2567 eligible manuscripts were retrieved. Of the top 100 papers, the median (range) citation number was 101 (414-51). The most cited paper by Lichtenstein et al. (2006) published in Circulation with 414 citations focused on transapical transcatheter aortic valve implantation as a viable alternative to aortic valve replacement with cardiopulmonary bypass in selected patients with aortic stenosis. The Annals of Thoracic Surgery published the most papers and received the most citations (n=35; 3036). The United States of America had the most publications and citations (n=52; 5303), followed by Germany (n=27; 2598). Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, published the most papers of all institutions. Minimally-invasive valve surgery (n=42) and coronary artery bypass surgery (n=30) were the two most frequent topics. Conclusions: This work establishes a comprehensive and informative analysis of the most influential publications in minimally-invasive cardiac surgery and outlines what constitutes a citable article. Undertaking a quantitative evaluation of the top 100 papers aids in recognising the contributions of key authors and institutions as well as guiding future efforts in this field to continually improve the quality of care offered to complex cardiac patients. Trial registration: Not applicable