The primary total knee arthroplasty: a global analysis

Abstract Background: The use of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in treatment of chronic degenerative pathologies of the knee has boasted of an experience of 50 years. Study objective: The aim of this bibliometric and visualized study is to comprehensively examine the current status and global trends of TKA research.Methods: Publications related to TKA research from 2010 to 2019 were retrieved from Web of Science (WoS) and Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) database, and then analyzed through bibliometric methodology. As for the visualized study, the software VOS viewer was utilized for bibliographic coupling, coauthorship, cociation, and co-occurrence analysis, along with further simulation of publication trends in this field.Results: A total of 8631 publications were eventually included. The number of publications tend to increased annually over worldwide. The United States was the pioneer which has made tremendous contributions, with the most publications and citations, as well as the highest H-index. The JOURNAL OF ARTHROPLASTY has published most papers, while CLINICAL ORTHOPAEDICS AND RELATED RESEARCH has the highest citation frequency. Hospital for Special Surgery have made the greatest contribution when total publication number and coauthorship were taken together. Studies could be divided into five clusters: “alignment study”, “revision TKA study”, “complication study”, “rehabilitation study”, and “perioperative management study”, which have a trend of balanced development in this field.Conclusions: There will be an increasing number of publications on TKA research according to the current global trends, and the United States maintained the leadership in this area. Additionally, a trend of balanced development may exist in the field of TKA research, accompanied with inherent changes of hotspots in each cluster.