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CC BY-NC 4.0 · Arch Plast Surg 2021; 48(06): 651-659
DOI: 10.5999/aps.2021.00745
Clinical Practice and Education
Original Article

Plastic surgery and specialty creep: an analysis of publication trends

Ethan L. Mackenzie 
Division of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, USA
,
Jeffrey D. Larson 
Division of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, USA
,
Samuel O. Poore 
Division of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, USA
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Background Many surgical specialties have had pioneering influences from plastic surgeons. However, many of these areas of practice have evolved to include surgeons from diverse training backgrounds. This raises the question as to whether the prominence of other specialties in clinical practice translates to greater research productivity in these areas. The objective of this paper is to investigate the publication volumes of plastic surgeons in selected areas of practice compared to surgeons from other disciplines.

Methods PubMed was used to examine publication trends in areas associated with plastic surgery. Searches for the following topics were performed: head and neck reconstruction, hand surgery, breast reconstruction, ventral hernia repair, abdominal component separation, brachial plexus injury, craniofacial surgery, and aesthetic surgery. Affiliation tags were used to examine contributions from nine specialties. Web of Science was used to identify the top cited articles for the last 10 years in each area.

Results Articles by non-plastic surgeons comprise the majority of the literature for all areas of practice studied except for breast reconstruction and aesthetic surgery. Despite this, plastic surgeons contributed the greatest number of top cited articles over the last 10 years for five of the areas of practice.

Conclusions While plastic surgeons do not contribute the greatest proportion of articles published each year in several of the selected areas of practice, they do publish a larger number of articles that are the most cited. Plastic surgeons remain the dominant academic force in terms of volume and citations for both breast and aesthetic surgery.

Keywords

Surgery, plastic - PubMed - Mammaplasty

Supplementary material

    Supplemental Table 3. Descriptive statistics and two-way t-tests for head and neck reconstruction publications by 3 year periods comparing otolaryngology and plastic and reconstructive surgery.
  • Supplementary material
    Supplemental Table 4. Descriptive statistics and two-way t-tests for hand surgery publications by 3 year periods comparing orthopedic surgery and plastic and reconstructive surgery.
  • Supplementary material
    Supplemental Table 5. Descriptive statistics and two-way t-tests for breast reconstruction publications by 3 year periods comparing breast/general surgery and plastic and reconstructive surgery.
  • Supplementary material
    Supplemental Table 6. Descriptive statistics and two-way t-tests for abdominal component separation publications by 3 year periods comparing general surgery and plastic and reconstructive surgery.
  • Supplementary material
    Supplemental Table 7. Descriptive statistics and ANOVA for brachial plexus injury publications by 3 year periods comparing neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, and plastic and reconstructive surgery.
  • Supplementary material
    Supplemental Table 8. Descriptive statistics and ANOVA for craniofacial surgery publications by 3 year periods comparing oromaxillofacial surgery, neurosurgery, and plastic and reconstructive surgery.
  • Supplementary material
    Supplemental Table 9. Descriptive statistics and ANOVA for aesthetic surgery publications by 3 year periods comparing dermatology, otolaryngology, oculoplastics, and plastic and reconstructive surgery.
  • Supplementary material
    Supplemental Table 10. The top cited article by year from 2010 to 2019 for head and neck reconstruction.
  • Supplementary material
    Supplemental Table 11. The top cited article by year from 2010 to 2019 for hand surgery.
  • Supplementary material
    Supplemental Table 12. The top cited article by year from 2010 to 2019 for breast reconstruction.
  • Supplementary material
    Supplemental Table 13. The top cited article by year from 2010 to 2019 for ventral hernia.
  • Supplementary material
    Supplemental Table 14. The top cited article by year from 2010 to 2019 for brachial plexus injury.
  • Supplementary material
    Supplemental Table 15. The top cited article by year from 2010 to 2019 for craniofacial surgery.
  • Supplementary material
    Supplemental Table 16. The top cited article by year from 2010 to 2019 for aesthetic surgery.
  • Supplementary material


Publication History

Received: 05 April 2021

Accepted: 06 August 2021

Article published online:
22 May 2022

© 2021. The Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, permitting unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)

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