Landmarks in Facial Rejuvenation Surgery: The Top 50 Most Cited Articles.

Background: Facial rejuvenation procedures are common in plastic surgery.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to report the 50 most cited articles in the field of aesthetic facial rejuvenation surgery and provide a simple educational resource for plastic surgeons.

Methods: The authors utilized the Web of Science Citation Index to identify the 50 most cited articles related to surgery for facial rejuvenation published from 1950 to 2019. Articles were classified according to their level of evidence, type of study, country of publication, and topic of interest: facelift, blepharoplasty, brow lift, neck lift, or combined areas.

Results: The mean number of citations per article was 137, and the majority of articles (n = 19) were published between 1990 and 1999. The most prevalent topic was facelift surgery (n = 24), followed by articles discussing combined procedures (n = 13), blepharoplasty (n = 6), brow lift (n = 4), and neck lift (n = 3). Most of the articles were classified as clinical (n = 26), followed by basic science studies (n = 12) and review articles (n = 12). Among the articles amenable to grading level of evidence (n = 26), most (n = 24) presented their findings utilizing level IV evidence. The nation of origin for most of the articles (n = 41) was the United States.

Conclusions: Articles addressing facelift surgery represented the largest proportion of peer-reviewed landmark publications in aesthetic facial surgery research. A simple educational resource is presented to encourage the appreciation of the research in this field.