REVIEW article
Front. Transplant.
Sec. Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation
This article is part of the Research TopicHow Current and Future Approaches and Research Results Contribute to Evolve the Field of Vascularized Composite AllotransplantationView all articles
The 100 Most-cited Publications in Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation
Provisionally accepted
Pharel Njessi1
Carter J Boyd2
Palmina Petruzzo3Olivier Camuzard1Antoine Sicard1Rami Kantar2Eduardo Rodriguez2
Elise Lupon1*- 1Université Côte d'Azur, Nice, France
- 2NYU Langone Transplant Institute, New York, United States
- 3Hopital Edouard Herriot, Lyon, France
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Background: Citation analysis is a useful bibliometric tool to identify impactful publications and trace the evolution of a specialty or a technique. In the past three decades, the research on vascularized composite allotransplantation (VCA) has grown exponentially but very few studies have examined the most influential papers in this field. Methods: The Web of Science Core Collection database was searched for articles published from inception to August 4th, 2025. Titles, full authors' names, years of publication, source journals, regions of origin, and numbers of citations were recorded. VCA anatomical location, main topics, and citation density were determined. Articles were ranked based on number of citations and citation density; they were then categorized based on methodology, study design, and main topic. Results: The 100 most-cited articles on VCA were published between 1996 and 2018 with the number of citations per article ranging from 61 to 604 citations. There were 53 non-clinical studies, the most prevalent topics were outcomes and rehabilitation (n = 48 articles) and immunology (n = 37). Of the 75 studies evaluated using the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine levels of evidence, most (n = 51) were classified as level 4. Discussion: This list of the top 100 most-cited articles highlights seminal and influential papers in VCA. It also demonstrates the relative novelty of this field with ongoing efforts in immunological research to allow its further expansion. The present study provides an understanding of VCA evolution while directing future clinical and preclinical studies.
Keywords: Bibliometric, Citation analysis, Face transplant, Hand transplant, vascularized composite allograft (VCA)
Received: 13 Nov 2025; Accepted: 26 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Njessi, Boyd, Petruzzo, Camuzard, Sicard, Kantar, Rodriguez and Lupon. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Elise Lupon
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.