Page 84 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Spring 2017

Table 2 Number of Citations for Seven Influential Missing Articles on Combat Orthopedic Trauma and Extremity Injury in
the Past 70 years (1940–2013)
Rank No. Times
Order Article Citation Year Cited
1 Bellamy RF. The causes of death in conventional land warfare: implications for combat casualty 1984 331
care research. Mil Med. 1984;149(2):55–62.
2 Kelly JF, et al. Injury severity and causes of death from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation 2008 149
Enduring Freedom: 2003–2004 versus 2006. J Trauma. 2008;64(2 suppl):S21–S26; discussion
S26–S27.
3 Tötterman A, et al. Extraperitoneal pelvic packing: a salvage procedure to control massive 2007 49
traumatic pelvic hemorrhage. J Trauma. 2007;62(4):843–852.
4 Maughon JS. An inquiry into the nature of wounds resulting in killed in action in Vietnam. Mil 1970 37
Med. 1970;135(1):8–13.
5 Artz CP, et al. Clinical experience in the management of the most severely injured battle 1955 28
casualties. Ann Surg. 1955;141(3):285–296.
6 Ritenour AE, et al. Complications after fasciotomy revision and delayed compartment release in 2008 0
combat patients. J Trauma. 2008;64(2 suppl):S153–S161; discussion S161–S162.
7 Beebe GW, Debakey ME. Battle casualties: incidence, mortality, and logistic considerations. Ann 1953 Not Listed
Intern Med. 1953;38(6):1345–1346.

Table 3 Most Frequently Cited Combat Orthopedic Articles by Decade, 1940–2010s
No. of Author
Decade Citations Name(s) Title
1940s None None None
1950s None None None
1960s 112 Davis Infrequent dressing change. Procedure in association with primary delayed closure of
compound extremity wounds of war
1970s None None None
1980s None None None
1990s 2 Coupland and Injuries from antipersonnel mines: the experience of the International Committee of
Korver the Red Cross
2000s 1 Owens et al. Characterization of extremity wounds in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation
Enduring Freedom
2010s 115 Cross et al. Battlefield orthopaedic injuries cause the majority of long-term disabilities

articles. This large citation history illuminates the im- ship during the Vietnam Conflict. Davis studied 275 US
pact of these articles on the field and supports the idea Marines with compound extremity wounds on which
that number of citations can be a useful metric for as- the closed plaster technique (described by Trueta dur-
25
sessing an article’s overall impact. ing the Spanish Civil War) and primary deployed closure
technique (often used by US Armed Forces in World War
II and Korea) were used. Davis found that 138 (71%)
24
Evolution
patients had successful closure of wounds, and combat
The most-cited articles by successive decades are indic- orthopedic surgical techniques from the Spanish Civil
ative of the evolution and major advances in combat War and World War II remained relevant in Vietnam. 24
orthopedics and the emergence of orthopedic trauma-
tology as a subspecialty during the past 70 years. How- The No. 2 article, by Coupland and Korver, was the
22
ever, there are no top-cited articles from the 1940s, most highly cited article of the 1990s. The most-cited
1950s, 1970s, and 1980s. Though not in the top 100, article of the 2000s was also the No. 1 cited article over-
the most-cited article of the 1960s (No. 112) was Gerald all, by Owens et al. This was one of the first published
10
L. Davis’ study, “Infrequent dressing change: procedure works of the newly formed US military theater trauma
in association with primary delayed closure of com- registry, the Joint Theater Trauma Registry, now known
pound extremity wounds of war.” This study explored as the Department of Defense Trauma Registry. This
24
the use of the combat surgical techniques of closed plas- registry was pivotal in making casualty care based on
ter and primary delayed closure on a US Navy hospital a foundation of epidemiologic data in near real time.

62 Journal of Special Operations Medicine Volume 17, Edition 1/Spring 2017