The Most Cited Original Articles on Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries in the Past 20 Years.

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries continue to be a major focus in sports medicine research. With so many changes to our understanding of ACL anatomy and with rapid advances in reconstruction techniques and rehabilitation protocols within the past 20 years, it is important to identify the landmark research that has laid the foundation for current ACL treatments. Using the Web of Science citation index, a search was carried out for the 30 most cited articles on ACL injury published in the last 20 years. The generated list was sorted from highest to lowest citation number. Clinical studies were subcategorized as therapeutic, prognostic, diagnostic, or economic/decision analysis and assigned a level of evidence. Basic science articles were designated anatomic, animal, biomechanical, or clinical. The number of citations per year (citation density) was calculated. The search yielded 6,345 articles. The total number of citations among the top 30 ranged from 188 to 611. Citation density ranged from 10.1 to 66.2. Nineteen articles were clinical, 8 were basic science, and 3 were video analyses. Clinical articles were most commonly therapeutic (18 of 19; 95%). Basic science articles were most commonly biomechanical (7 of 8; 88%). The most common level of evidence was Level II (10 of 19; 53%). More than half of the articles in the top 30 (16 of 30; 53%) were published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine. Many of these articles have played a large role in shaping current clinical practice regarding ACL injuries. We hope that by compiling this list we can draw attention to the continued need for studies of the highest level of evidence.