Influential literature regarding proximal junctional kyphosis: A bibliometric review.

STUDY

DESIGN

Retrospective review.

OBJECTIVE

This bibliometric review summarizes the publication trends and critical information about the most cited Proximal Junction Kyphosis (PJK) articles.

BACKGROUND

Data: Proximal junctional kyphosis is frequently diagnosed after spinal fusion surgery. However, there continues to be heavy debate regarding the definition, incidence, risk factors, and treatment of this disorder.

METHODS

Nine hundred eleven articles were found when searching The Web of Science database with the keywords "Proximal junctional kyphosis" and "proximal junctional failure." The 200 top-cited articles were reviewed and screened to ensure PJK was discussed. The articles were filtered based on the highest to lowest number of citations, and the top 50 articles were chosen. Inclusion criteria included articles that contained a discussion of PJK and outcomes after surgery. Exclusion criteria included articles without mentioning PJK, or that studied non-human subjects. The 50 most cited articles were sorted by level of evidence and their classification for analysis.

RESULTS

The 50 most cited articles in this study were published a total of 6056 times. These articles were cited 71-413 times in the literature, with publications from 1994 to 2018. Most of the top 50 articles (64%) were published in the USA. Specifically, HSS and Washington University are the institutions with the most contributions to the publication of the most cited articles on PJK (n = 16). Lenke was the author that contributed to most publications in the top 50 articles on PJK.

CONCLUSION

This study provides a framework for the most cited articles published on PJK. Most articles on this topic were in the category of clinical outcomes (36%) and were of a level of evidence III (46%). Most of the top-cited articles came from the journal Spine (68%) and were published in the USA (64%). These top-cited papers are essential to understanding this critical trending topic in spine surgery.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III.