The 100 most cited papers in foot and ankle surgery

BackgroundThe number of citations of a paper gives an indication of an article's merit and importance within a medical specialty. We identify and analyse the 100 most cited papers in foot and ankle surgery.MethodThe Science Citation Index Expanded was searched for citations in 15 respected journals containing foot and ankle articles. Papers were analysed for subject, authorship, institution, country and year of publication. The average yearly citation was compared to total number of citations.Results3501 foot and ankle papers were returned. The maximum number of citations was 1084 and the mean was 104. The top 100 papers were published between 1979 and 2007, with the majority published in the last decade. The ankle was the most important anatomical region discussed, and basic science and degenerative disease were popular topics. We found a large discrepancy between the total number of citations with average yearly citation.ConclusionFoot and ankle surgery is a young and rapidly developing sub-specialty within orthopaedics. Recently there has been a significant increase in influential papers published. Certain topics are popular indicating their importance within the field. This study highlights important papers in foot and ankle surgery giving an insight into readership.