Bibliometric Analysis of the Top 100 Cited Articles and Author H-indices on the Surgical Treatment of Trigeminal Neuralgia.

INTRODUCTION: Medically refractory cases of trigeminal neuralgia often require treatment escalation. Surgical options include microvascular decompression and percutaneous ablation. This paper provides a bibliometric analysis of the most influential papers on trigeminal neuralgia surgical management.

METHODS: Web of Science was queried to identify the top 100 cited articles concerning trigeminal neuralgia surgical treatment. Search term used: "ALL=(("trigeminal neuralgia" or "tic douloureux" or "Fothergill's disease" or "Trifacial neuralgia")AND("surgical treatment" or "surgical management" or "surgery" or "neurosurgery")NOT("radiosurgery" or "gamma knife"))." Extracted variables included first and senior author name, journal, publication year, institution, and surgical modality.

RESULTS: Our bibliometric search yielded 2,104 studies, with 41,502 citations overall. Within the top 100 articles, Zakrzewska had the most first author papers (n=5), and Burchiel had the most senior author papers (n=6). The Massachusetts General Hospital was the most represented institution (n=5). The United States was the most represented country (51%). Microvascular decompression was the most studied surgical strategy (51%), followed by percutaneous radiofrequency coagulation (9%), balloon/nerve compression (7%), and glycerol rhizolysis (7%). Some studies assessed multiple treatment modalities (22%). Types of studies included retrospective articles (58%), prospective articles (26%), reviews (10%), anatomic studies (2%), and basic science (1%). Neurosurgery (35%) and the Journal of Neurosurgery (33%) were the most represented journals.

CONCLUSION: The current literature consists of retrospective reviews and mostly describes microvascular decompression for trigeminal neuralgia. Future studies should include further characterization of other surgical modalities such as percutaneous radiofrequency thermocoagulation, glycerol injection, and balloon compression.