INVESTIGATION OF ANTERIOR CRUCIATE LIGAMENT RELATED RESEARCH: ANIMAL MODELS, BIOMATERIALS, AND BIBLIOMETRIC PARAMETERS

Abstract

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are a common clinical phenomena, which makes an ACL repair a hot research topic. This study analyzes bibliometric trends on ACL regeneration and publications with high citations. To gather the data, an online search for articles on ACL regeneration and engineering published between 2000 and 2025 was performed on the Web of Science Core Collection (WSCC). The data on animal models, biomaterials used, the publication year, countries, institutions, journals, and citation count were obtained and analyzed using VOSviewer and Excel. In total, after applying keyword search and exclusion criteria and filtering out irrelevant publications, 284 articles on ACL regeneration were considered. The top 100 most-cited articles were further analyzed. The results revealed that the number of published articles increased throughout the years, indicating a growing research interest on the topic. Rabbits were found to be the most frequently used animals (29%) for in-vivo studies. Collagen appeared as the most frequently used biomaterial (39%). The USA was found to publish the most articles (n=99) and the top publishing journal on ACL regeneration was Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. This study was conducted to serve as a helpful tool for researchers and clinicians in the field of ACL repair.