The Top 100 Most-Cited Articles in Venous Disease and Management

Background: Advancements in the management of venous disease have been documented in scientific literature. We performed a bibliometric analysis using citations as an indication of impact to analyze the most influential articles on venous disease and treatment.

Methods: A retrospective search of the Web of Science database was conducted in May 2023. Key search terms were queried to generate relevant articles. Articles were ranked on total number of citations and average number of citations per year. Metrics analyzed included top journals, impact factor, journal discipline, institution and country of publication, author degree and gender, number of publications per year, level of evidence, and article topic area.

Results: The top 100 articles on venous disease were published between 1994 and 2020, with a total of 102,856 citations, average 1,028 citations/article, and mean of 70 citations/year. The most popular article was "Incidence of thrombotic complications of in critically ill Intensive Care Unit patients with COVID-19" with 3,482 citations in total. The most popular journals were New England Journal of Medicine (22 articles), Lancet (14 articles), and CHEST (13 articles), pertaining to management of deep venous thrombosis (DVT). The Journal of Vascular surgery had 2 influential articles, focused on management of chronic venous disease. Many articles were published in the United States (52), Canada (38), and Netherlands (25). Prolific authors were predominantly male (96%) and 59% were MDs versus 29% combined MD/PhD and 12% PhDs. Popular venous articles included guidelines/standards for DVT management (12%), epidemiology of venous thromboembolism (12%), and anticoagulation for DVT (12%). Specific venous thromboembolism risk factors within popular literature included prothrombotic genes, malignancy, pregnancy, trauma, and COVID-19. Articles on surgical interventions included inferior vena cava filter placement, catheter-directed thrombolysis, and risks of femoral and subclavian vein catheterization. Venous stenting and mechanical thrombectomy were not within the top articles.

Conclusions: Top-cited articles on venous disease emphasized management of DVT, followed by chronic venous disease, through the collaboration of multiple medical and surgical specialties. The largest number of citations in recent DVT literature was driven by COVID-19 complications.