Evolution and Hotspots in Bilateral Total Joint Arthroplasty Research: A Bibliometric Analysis.

Background: Total joint arthroplasty (TJA) is a potent treatment for degenerative joint disorders. Bilateral total joint arthroplasty (BTJA) encompasses both bilateral total knee arthroplasty (BTKA) and bilateral total hip arthroplasty (BTHA). Both BTKA and BTHA can be performed as either a simultaneous procedure or a staged procedure. The goal of this study was to investigate trends in BTJA research, including pertinent authors, journals, countries, and papers. We also evaluated frequent keywords and topics to predict potential future study fields.

Methods: Articles published between 1982 and 2022 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection of Clarivate Analytics. The search query included "hip" OR "knee" (Topic) AND "arthroplasty" OR "replacement" (Topic) AND "bilateral" OR "simultaneous" (Topic) AND 1992-2022 (Year published) AND Article (Document type). Metrics were imported for further analysis with Bibliometrix and VOSviewer.

Results: A total of 736 articles associated with BTJA were retrieved, originating from 44 countries with the United States being the biggest contributor. Top institutions were Cornell University and Ewha Womans University. Kim YH was the most productive and impactful author. The Journal of Arthroplasty had the highest impact and the greatest number of articles and citations. Williams Russo had the most cited article. Co-occurrence visualizations highlighted predominant topics in the literature.

Conclusions: Since 1982, there has been a growing interest in BTJA research. The United States institutions have been the primary providers in global scholarly production. This bibliometric analysis identified previous, present, and emergent tendencies in BTJA with the goal of forecasting new potential hotspots.