Robotic Surgery in Gynecologic Oncology—A Bibliometric Study

Study Objective: To characterize robotic surgery publications in gynecologic oncology, and to identify factors associated with high citation metrics. Design: A cross-sectional study Setting: Original articles on robotic surgery in gynecologic oncology. Patients: No patients involved. Interventions: Robotic surgeries in gynecologic oncology. Measurements and Main Results: We performed PubMed Medical Subject Headings search for original articles on robotic surgery in gynecologic oncology. We analyzed citation scores and income level of country of publication, as well as factors associated with high citation metrics. Overall, 566 studies during 2005 to 2023 were included. Of those 292, 51.6% were from North America, and 182 32.2% from Europe. The leading tumor site studied was endometrial cancer (57.4%). The majority (87.6%) of studies were retrospective and 13 (2.3%) were randomized controlled trials. Most studies (94.2%) originated in high-income countries. Articles from middle-income countries had lower citations per year as compared to high-income countries (median 1.6 vs 2.5, p =.002) and were published in lower-impact factor journals (median 2.6 vs 4.3, p < .001) when compared with high-income countries. Cervical cancer studies had higher representation in middle-income countries than in high-income countries (48.5% vs 18.4%, p < .001). In a multivariable regression analysis, journal's impact factor [aOR 95% CI 1.26 (1.12–1.40)], cervical cancer topic [aOR 95% CI 3.0 (1.58–5.91)], and North American publications [aOR 95% CI 2.07 (1.08–3.97)] were independently associated with higher number of citations per year. Conclusion: The majority of robotic surgery research in gynecologic oncology is retrospective and from high-income countries. Middle-income countries are not as frequently cited and are predominantly in lower-impact factor journals.