The Top 100 Most Cited Articles on Intrauterine Adhesion: a Bibliometric Analysis

Bibliometric analysis is a statistical method that attempts to assess articles by their citations, analyzing their frequency and citation pattern, which subsequently gleans direction and guidance for future research. Over the past few years, articles focused on intrauterine adhesions have been published with increasing frequency. Nevertheless, little is known about the properties and qualities of this research, and no current analysis exists that has examined the progress in intrauterine adhesion research. Web of Science Core Collection, BIOSIS Citation Index, and MEDLINE database were searched to identify articles on intrauterine adhesion published from 1950 to October 2020. The 100 most cited articles were chosen to analyze citation count, citation density, authorship, theme, geographic distribution, time-related flux, level of evidence, and network analysis. An overwhelming majority of these 100 articles were published in the 2010s (35%). Citations per article ranged from 30 to 253. Chinese authors published the most papers in the top 100, followed by the USA, France, Israel, and Italy. The most salient study themes included operative hysteroscopy and adjunctive treatments for improving reproductive outcomes. The most common level of evidence was level II, and there was no statistical difference in the number of citations between the levels. The network analysis indicated that hysteroscopy, hysteroscopic adhesiolysis, infertility, and the reproductive outcome had a great degree of centrality in the 2000s and 2010s. In comparison, placental implantation had a great degree of centrality in the 2000s, and stem cell and fibrosis had a great degree of centrality in the 2010s. The value of IUA investigation has been gradually appreciated recently. Hysteroscopic adhesiolysis was continuously explored to achieve better reproductive outcome. Over time, the main focus of research has gradually shifted from complications to postoperative adjuvant treatment. Moreover, breakthrough progress is needed in underlying mechanism and early prevention of IUA.

The Top 100 Most Cited Articles on Intrauterine Adhesion: A Bibliometric Analysis

Background: Bibliometric analysis is a statistical method which attempts to assess articles by their citations, analyzing their frequency and pattern of citing phenomenon. Through the analysis, some guidance can be extracted for future research directions. Over the past few years, there have been articles published in mounting numbers focused on intrauterine adhesions. Nevertheless, little is known about the properties and qualities of these researches. No existed analysis commits to reflecting the progress of researches in intrauterine adhesion.Methods: Web of Science Core Collection, BIOSIS Citation Index and MEDLINE were searched for the identifying articles released from 1950 to October 2020. Articles concerning about Intrauterine adhesion were determined. Subsequently, the 100 most cited articles were chosen for analysis of citation count, citation density (citations/article age), authorship, theme, geographic distribution, time-related flux, level of evidence, and network analysis.Results: An overwhelming majority of the certain 100 articles were put out in the 2010s (35%). Citations per article ranged from 30 to 253. China possesses the most papers among the top 100 papers, followed by the USA, France, Israel and Italy. The study theme that most highlighted were operative hysteroscopy and adjunctive treatments for improving reproductive outcome. Level II is the most common level of evidence, and there is no statistical difference in the number of citations between the levels. The network analysis connoted that hysteroscopy, hysteroscopic adhesiolysis, infertility, and reproductive outcome had a great degree of centrality in the 2000s and 2010s, while placental implantation had a great degree of centrality in the 2000s and stem cell and fibrosis had a great degree of centrality in the 2010s. Conclusions: We conducted a bibliometric analysis of the top 100 most cited articles in the literature on intrauterine adhesions. It is worth noting that hysteroscopy and hysteroscopic adhesiolysis were long-term concern in the field of intrauterine adhesion researches. As the elapse of time, postoperative adjuvant treatment has gradually become the hot spot of researches. However, there are only 9 experimental articles among these 100 articles, showing the lack of breakthrough progress in the field of intrauterine adhesions at the mechanism level.