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Artificial intelligence

Artificial Intelligence-Driven Analysis Reveals Trends in Orthopaedic Literature

Strategic Insights

— 1 min read

Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina utilized the Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers Topic (BERTopic) Model to analyze research topics in Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic and Related Surgery. The study included 7,304 original articles and reviews published between 1985 and 2023, which were categorized into 35 topics using the BERTopic model. The most common topics were anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, hip arthroscopy, and femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), and shoulder instability.

Key Takeaways:

  • The BERTopic model efficiently grouped large datasets into topics based on semantic similarity, identifying 35 topics from 7,304 articles.
  • Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, hip arthroscopy, and femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), and shoulder instability were the most common topics between 1985 and 2023.
  • From 2020 to 2023, hip arthroscopy and femoroacetabular impingement, superior capsular reconstruction, and anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction were identified as 'hot' topics, while suture anchor biomechanics, platelet-rich plasma, and arthroscopic irrigation were identified as 'cold' topics, indicating a decline in popularity.
  • The study demonstrated the capacity of the BERTopic model to synthesize thousands of articles within Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic and Related Surgery into key topics.
  • The ability to process large amounts of data with accuracy and efficiency provides a powerful tool for establishing and defining the current landscape and potential future directions of orthopaedic literature.
  • The research identified research gaps that may need to be addressed, such as the decline in popularity of certain topics like suture anchor biomechanics and platelet-rich plasma.
  • The study concluded that analyzing large amounts of data with AI can help recognize patterns, identifying common topics, emerging topics, and shifts in focus over time.

Statistics:

  • 7,304 original articles and reviews were included in the study, published between 1985 and 2023.
  • The BERTopic model categorized 6,901 articles into 35 topics.
  • The most common topics were anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (23.1%), hip arthroscopy (14.5%), and femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) and shoulder instability (12.3%).
  • From 2020 to 2023, 12 topics were identified as 'hot', including hip arthroscopy and femoroacetabular impingement, superior capsular reconstruction, and anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.
  • 7 topics were identified as 'cold', including suture anchor biomechanics, platelet-rich plasma, and arthroscopic irrigation.

Sources:

  • Research from Medical University of South Carolina in the Area of Artificial Intelligence Described (Artificial Intelligence-Driven Analysis Identifies Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction, Hip Arthroscopy and Femoroacetabular Impingement ...). Health & Medicine Week. July 18, 2025; p 778.
  • Arthroscopy, Sports Medicine, and Rehabilitation, 2025,7(3):101108, Elsevier.

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