Scientometrics
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Mar 18, 2021; 12(3): 169-177
Published online Mar 18, 2021. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v12.i3.169
Bibliometric analysis of research on the effects of human immunodeficiency virus in orthopaedic and trauma surgery
Ciaran Brennan, Maritz Laubscher, Sithombo Maqungo, Simon Matthew Graham
Ciaran Brennan, Department of Orthopaedics, Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro TR13LQ, United Kingdom
Ciaran Brennan, Maritz Laubscher, Sithombo Maqungo, Simon Matthew Graham, Orthopaedic Research Unit, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7925, South Africa
Maritz Laubscher, Sithombo Maqungo, Simon Matthew Graham, Division of Orthopaedic Surgery, Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town 7925, South Africa
Simon Matthew Graham, Institute of Population Health Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L97AL, United Kingdom
Simon Matthew Graham, Department of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery, Liverpool University Teaching Hospitals Trust, Liverpool L97AL, United Kingdom
Simon Matthew Graham, Department of Clinical Sciences, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool L97AL, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Brennan C did the data collection and analysis, wrote and edited the article; Graham SM did the idea conception, wrote and edited the article; Laubscher M and Maqungo S did the editing of the final article.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ciaran Brennan, MBChB, Research Fellow, Department of Orthopaedics, Royal Cornwall Hospital, Treliske Truro Cornwall, Truro TR13LQ, United Kingdom. ciaranbrennan@doctors.org.uk
Received: July 5, 2020
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
Processing time: 250 Days and 0.5 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

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.

Research motivation

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.

Research objectives

This study aimed to investigate the quantity and quality of peer-reviewed publications in orthopaedic journals about HIV.

Research methods

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.

Research results

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.

Research conclusions

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.

Research perspectives

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.