Abstract

Background: Bibliometric analysis identifies the most cited publications, which define understanding of Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding (LAGB). In this study, the 100 most cited articles in the field of LAGB were studied and correlation between Total Citation Count (TCC), Citation Rate Index (CRI), Level of Evidence (LOE), and Altmetric Attention Scores (AAS) analysed.

Methods: The Thomson Reuters Web of Science database was used to identify relevant English language articles using the search terms: ((laparo* and adjust* and gastr* and band*) OR (LAGB or L.A.G.B.)) AND ALL FIELDS: ((endoscop* or remov* or complicat*)). The 100 most cited papers analysed.

Results: 1,473 articles were returned with median citation count of 122 [interquartile range (IQR):96.75–215.25]. The most cited article was ‘Surgical Treatment of Obesity’ by Maggard et al. (962 citations). The journal “Obesity Surgery” published the most papers within the top 100 and had the highest TCC (n=36, 5633 citations). The article with the highest AAS. LOE was significantly related to TCC (p=0.0029), CRI (p=0.00002) and AAS (p=0.00173). Articles published post-2006 had a higher AAS compared to pre-2006 (p=0.00001). The AAS of articles published pre-2006 were not correlated with the TCC (r=0.2332, p=0.1108) but had a positive correlation with the CRI (r=0.3194, p=0.0268). The AAS post-2006 did not have a significant correlation with TCC (r=0.5274, p=5.8596) or CRI (r=0.5274, p=5.8596).

Conclusion: Bibliometric indices provide an important perspective on article impact and are related to evidence level. AAS and, consequently, social media impact is now a valid measurement of academic impact.

Keywords: Obesity; Overweight; Laparoscopy; Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding