Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Sep 21;17(1):100161.
doi: 10.1016/j.jham.2024.100161. eCollection 2025 Jan.

Vascularised Composite Allotransplantation - A guide to optimal dissemination of scientific outputs

C M Hehir  1   2   3 , G P Dowling  1 , G G Calpin  1 , M O'Connor  4 , L Kelly  4 , C S Honeyman  5 , H L Stark  6 , R T Dolan  2   3
Affiliations

Vascularised Composite Allotransplantation - A guide to optimal dissemination of scientific outputs

C M Hehir et al. J Hand Microsurg. .

Abstract

Purpose: The impact of academic research is not just important within the clinical domain but within society as a whole. Altmetric Attention Score (AAS) offers a means of assessing how scholarly outputs are interacted with online. Vascularised Composite Allotransplantation (VCA) is a modern but rapidly evolving topic which encompasses a broad range of complex and clinically significant surgical interventions. Primarily VCA is utilised in the reconstruction of complex, composite tissue defects, including limb and face transplantation. There is also a growing interest in the role of VCA as an early means of real-time immuno-monitoring, in sentinel skin flap transplant (SSF).

Materials & methods: In July 2024, a search was conducted using the Altmetric Explorer (AE) database using the search term 'vascular-composite' AND 'allograft' OR 'allotransplant'. A simultaneous literature search was carried out using Web of Science (WoS) database utilising the same search terms with extraction of traditional citation-based metrics as well as relevant 'meso' and 'micro' subject headings. Corresponding citation-based metrics were extracted utilising SCImago. Data was compiled and analysed using a linear regression model with level of significance set at p < 0.05.

Results: The Top 100 (T100) performing articles relating to VCA displayed a mean Altmetric Attention Score (AAS) of 3.31. All T100 papers were published in the English language. Sixty percent (n = 60) of T100 papers were published in Q1 Journals. News outlet mentions (r = 6.95), blog mentions (r = 6.20), and Twitter/X mentions (r = 0.52) demonstrated the greatest positive impact on AAS upon application of a linear regression model (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Altmetric Scores offer a means of appraising the impact of research outputs in both academic and societal domains. Such modern metrics are useful in evolving topics such as VCA as AAS is not dependent on citation counts. Publishing of outputs in high quartile, open access journals with timely utilisation of news and social media outlets should be utilised by researchers aiming to maximise dissemination of research outputs in the field of VCA.

Keywords: Altmetric analysis; Sentinel skin flap; Transplant; Vascularised composite allograft.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Geographical distribution of Twitter/X Mentions on the topic of VCA (Image Generated using Altmetric Explorer).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Geographical distribution of news outputs (Image Generated using Altmetric Explorer).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Trend in frequency of VCA research outputs from 2000 to 2024 (Graph generated using Web of Science).
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Trend in interaction surrounding the topic of VCA from 2012 to 2024 as represented by Twitter/X/Facebook Interactions, News Mentions, Blog Post Mentions, Public Policy Citations and Patent Citations (Graph generated using Altmetric Explorer).
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Publications relating to Vascularised Composite Allotransplantation between 2019 and 2024, which have been subdivided based on their primary focus.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Murphy B.D., Zuker R.M., Borschel G.H. Vascularized composite allotransplantation: an update on medical and surgical progress and remaining challenges. J Plast Reconstr Aesthetic Surg. 2013;66(11):1449–1455. - PubMed
    1. Honeyman C., Fries C.A. Vascularised composite allotransplantation–basic science and clinical applications. Intern J Orthopla Surg. 2019;2(1):13–22.
    1. Gander B., Brown C.S., Vasilic D., et al. Composite tissue allotransplantation of the hand and face: a new frontier in transplant and reconstructive surgery. Transpl Int. 2006;19(11):868–880. - PubMed
    1. Giele H., Vaidya A., Reddy S., Vrakas G., Friend P. Current state of abdominal wall transplantation. Curr Opin Organ Transplant. 2016;21(2):159–164. - PubMed
    1. Brännström M. Womb transplants with live births: an update and the future. Expet Opin Biol Ther. 2017;17(9):1105–1112. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources