Common Topics of Publication and Levels of Evidence in the Current Hand Surgery Literature

Abstract

Background Scientific publications are the primary vehicle for the distribution of scientific findings, but there has been limited research on literature topic surveillance. We sought to identify and characterize the most commonly published topic domains in the hand surgery literature. Methods We performed a 6-month hypothesis testing phase to identify the most frequently published topics in three hand surgery journals: Hand, The Journal of Hand Surgery (American), and The Journal of Hand Surgery (European). We reviewed all of the published articles in these journals from June 2010 to May 2015 to identify and characterize publications related to the three most common topic domains. Results A total of 2,146 articles were published during the 5-year study period. The three most frequent topics domains included distal radius (DR) (11% of all articles), flexor tendon (FT) (9%), and carpal tunnel (CT) (7.5%). These subjects accounted for a total of 584 articles (27% of all publications) and 3,014 published pages during the study period. FT, CT, and DR publications were cited on average 2.3 times per year (2.5, 2.4, and 2.0, respectively). Conclusion A small subset of topic domains makes up a significant proportion of scientific publications in hand surgery.

Trends in Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Publications

“…They concluded that this small subset of topics constitutes an outsized proportion of the hand surgery publications. 9 Our study found similar results, with 23.2% of all articles published coming from 3 topics in a 5.5-year time frame. The clinical relevance and economic burden of these 3 topic domains might explain why they are the most commonly published in foot and ankle literature.…”

“…For these reasons, it is important to assess and critically analyze the type and the quality of data being published within each specialty. Recently, Lemme et al 9 looked at the common topics published in hand surgery and noted that the majority (27%) of articles published in a 5-year period were in 3 specific topics. They concluded that this small subset of topics constitutes an outsized proportion of the hand surgery publications.…”

Machine learning review of hand surgery literature

“…However, it can be difficult for surgeons to stay up to date on the latest research. [4][5][6][7][8][9] Literature reviews can help clinicians process a large number of studies more quickly, but conducting these reviews by traditional methods is time-consuming and prone to error. [10][11][12] This study seeks to utilize advances in machine This study successfully utilized machine learning to process 11,501 articles and reduced these studies to 50 topics ranked by overall frequency and trends in frequency from 2000-2021.…”

“…[1][2][3] Today, more articles are published in hand surgery journals than ever before, making it difficult for practicing surgeons to sort through the evergrowing body of literature. 4,5 Modern health systems emphasize evidence-based treatment, and expect their physicians to stay updated on and comply to the latest standards of care. [6][7][8][9] Therefore, it is critical that clinicians and researchers are able to efficiently process trends in research.…”

“…These upper extremity injuries account for nearly a quarter of all unintentional injuries 1–3 . Today, more articles are published in hand surgery journals than ever before, making it difficult for practicing surgeons to sort through the ever-growing body of literature 4,5 . Modern health systems emphasize evidence-based treatment, and expect their physicians to stay updated on and comply to the latest standards of care 6–9 .…”