Latarjet Classics: An Analysis of The 50 Most-Cited Articles on The Latarjet Procedure

Purpose: The Latarjet procedure was initially described by Michel Latarjet in 1954 as a treatment for recurrent dislocations of the shoulder. Over the last decade, an arthroscopic approach has emerged as the natural evolution of the open procedure. The purpose of this study was to identify and analyze the fifty most-cited articles related to the Latarjet, analyze the associated characteristics of each article, and to evaluate whether surgeons are currently influenced by primarily higher versus lower-level studies. Methods: Various Boolean queries were searched on the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science, which yielded final search terms of topics on “latarjet OR latarjet-bristow OR bristow-latarjet OR latarjet-patte or patte-latarjet”. Information collected included: author demographics, study type, level of evidence, journal name, number of citations, and publication year. Results: The top fifty Latarjet articles had 5,319 citations and consisted of 0 level I, 3 level II, 8 level III, 25 level IV and 14 level V studies (date range: 1983 – 2017, median 2012). The most cited article received 454 citations. Authors from France (n = 14, 27%) contributed the most to included papers, followed by the United States (n = 8, 16%). Conclusions: The most-cited articles on the Latarjet procedure tend to be case series, cohort studies, and expert opinions published primarily by French and American authors between 2000 and 2016. With the recent technical innovation surrounding the Latarjet procedure and glenoid bone-block reconstruction in general, these articles may form the foundation that future higher level-of-evidence studies will build upon in their research.