Abstract
Background Robot-guided lumbar spine surgery has evolved rapidly with evidence to support its utility and feasibility compared with conventional freehand and fluoroscopy-based techniques. The objective of this study was to assess trends among the top 25 most-cited articles pertaining to robotic-guided lumbar spine surgery.
Methods An “advanced document search” using Boolean search operator terms was performed on 16 November 2022 through the Web of Science and SCOPUS citation databases to determine the top 25 most-referenced articles on robotic lumbar spine surgery. The articles were compiled into a directory and hierarchically organized based on the total number of citations.
Results Cumulatively, the “Top 25” list for robot-assisted navigation in lumbar spine surgery received 2240 citations, averaging 97.39 citations annually. The number of citations ranged from 221 to 40 for the 25 most-cited articles. The most-cited study, by Kantelhardt et al, received 221 citations, averaging 18 citations per year.
Conclusions As utilization of robot-guided modalities in lumbar spine surgery increases, this review highlights the most impactful studies to support its efficacy and implementation. Practical considerations such as cost-effectiveness, however, need to be better defined through further longitudinal studies that evaluate patient-reported outcomes and cost-utility.
Clinical Relevance Through an overview of the top 25 most-cited articles, the present review highlights the rising prominence and technical efficacy of robotic-guided systems within lumbar spine surgery, with consideration to pragmatic limitations and need for additional data to facilitate cost-effective applications.
Level of Evidence 5
Footnotes
Funding The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.
Disclosures No funding was received for this study. Andy Ton, Nicole Hang, William Liu, and Ryan Liu have nothing to disclose. Patrick C. Hsieh has received royalties from Medtronics, Nuvasive, and Zimmer Biomet. Jeffrey C. Wang has received intellectual property royalties from Zimmer Biomet, NovApproach, SeaSpine, and DePuy Synthes. Raymond J. Hah has received grant funding from SI bone, consulting fees from NuVasive, and support from the North American Spine Society to attend meetings. Ram K. Alluri has received grant funding from the National Institutes for Health, consulting fees from HIA Technologies, and payment from Eccentrial Robotics for lectures and presentations.
Ethics Approval Informed consent was waived due to the retrospective nature of the study, and institutional review board approval was not required as the database is deidentified.
- This manuscript is generously published free of charge by ISASS, the International Society for the Advancement of Spine Surgery. Copyright © 2024 ISASS. To see more or order reprints or permissions, see http://ijssurgery.com.