Published online Mar 18, 2021. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v12.i3.169
Peer-review started: July 5, 2020
First decision: January 7, 2021
Revised: January 12, 2021
Accepted: February 4, 2021
Article in press: February 4, 2021
Published online: March 18, 2021
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has become a chronic health problem with advances in treatment, and the chance of orthopaedic surgeons encountering it in clinical practice is increasing. It is also known that HIV may present with various musculoskeletal manifestations or treatment may result in a number of orthopaedic pathologies. There is little research in the current literature investigating how HIV effects outcomes in orthopaedic surgery.
The current literature highlighted a lack of research looking at the effects of HIV in trauma and orthopaedic surgery, particularly coming from geographic areas most in need of this evidence base for clinical practice. By highlighting this gap in the literature, it should pave the way for future research to be conducted in the appropriate setting to help improve outcomes in this patient cohort.
This study aimed to investigate the quantity and quality of peer-reviewed publications in orthopaedic journals about HIV.
A bibliometric analysis was conducted using the ‘Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science database. All articles in orthopaedic journals relating to HIV were identified. All relevant articles were analysed for the following information: journal title, year of publication, geographic location and country, level of evidence and number of citations. This is a novel research method for determining the volume and quality of publications about HIV in trauma and orthopaedic surgery.
Less than half of orthopaedic journals listed on the Web of Science database had articles published relating to HIV. Only 168 articles were identified in the literature, with only 40.5% (n = 68) published in the time frame analysed in the study (January 2007 to September 2017). These articles tended to be low level of evidence papers. The majority of research output came from high-income countries and any articles published from low-income countries were collaborations.
The findings of this study show that there is a need for more research to be carried out on how HIV affects outcomes in orthopaedic and trauma surgery. This further research should be carried out in the area of greatest clinical need, particularly in low-income countries, where the burden of disease is higher. One way to achieve, as shown from the results of this study, is with greater collaborative research efforts between high-income and low-income countries.
The direction of future research should be focused on larger scale clinical trials, including collaborative studies, investigating the effects of HIV in orthopaedic and trauma surgery to produce high level of evidence research, to improve clinical outcomes.