title: The 100 most cited publications in cardiac surgery: a bibliometric analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study is a citation analysis of the top 100 most cited papers in adult cardiac surgery. Bibliometric analyses are viewed as a proxy marker of a paper's influence and, therefore, an analysis of the most influential papers published in recent decades.
  
  
  METHODS
  Impact factor ranking as of 2012 was used to decide which journals to include in our searches. The Thompson Reuters Web of Knowledge was used to search for citations of all papers relevant to cardiac surgery within selected journals. Journals in the areas of surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, general medicine, anaesthesia, perfusion and pathology were included.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The most frequently cited paper was found to be that of Nashef et al. (Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 16(1):9-13, 1999) introducing the EuroSCORE operative risk evaluation system. A number of authors including Alderman, Carpentier and Cox had more than one paper in the top 100.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Despite the potential flaws with bibliometric analysis, and its application to cardiac surgery, there is inherent merit in an analysis of this type.
authors.affiliation: Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Eccles St., Dublin 7, Ireland, kaosulli@tcd.ie.
authors.forename: K E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: O'Sullivan
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Hurley
mesh_terms: D015706:Bibliometrics; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D055811:Journal Impact Factor; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*