A bibliometric study of vascularized fibular grafting technique

Aims: Vascularized fibula graft (VFG) technique is one of these “gold standard” techniques in bone regeneration. Although there have been several bibliometrics studies in orthopedics, there haven’t been any on VFGs. By identifying the gaps in previous research, we sought to provide light on the scientific evolution of VFGs and provide direction for future investigations. Methods: In this bibliometric study, the Web of Science (WOS) database was used to access publications on VFG published between 1986-2022. A literature search was performed with selected keywords. The dataset obtained was downloaded from the WOS database as an output. This output was analyzed with VOSviewer and Biblioshiny tools. Results: A total of 430 documents on VFG included the study. A mean of 11.9 articles/year was published on VFG. The first article on VFG published in 1986. Since 2005, there has been an increasing trend in the number of articles and citations. The year with the highest number of both publications (n=32) and citations (n=756) was 2021. The publications on VFG have cited a total of 7300 times, an average of 16.98 citations per publication. Total 51 countries contributed to publications on the VFG between 1986-2022. The United States of America (USA) was identified as the global leader in terms of the number of publications (n=91, 21.163%), followed by Japan (n=58, 13.488%) and China (n=56, 13.023%). The USA had 91 manuscripts and 2162 citations with an H-index:29 and Japan had 58 manuscripts and 1145 citations with an H-index:22. Conclusion: The literature on VFG is quite limited. Most of the publications are from developed countries. Studies should be supported for this method that can be used in the treatment of many diseases, especially in developing countries.