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. 2017:2017:7560236.
doi: 10.1155/2017/7560236. Epub 2017 Feb 21.

Quality of Spine Surgery Research from the Arab Countries: A Systematic Review and Bibliometric Analysis

Saleh S Baeesa  1 , Yazid Maghrabi  1 , Abdul Karim Msaddi  2 , Richard Assaker  3
Affiliations

Quality of Spine Surgery Research from the Arab Countries: A Systematic Review and Bibliometric Analysis

Saleh S Baeesa et al. Biomed Res Int. 2017.

Abstract

Purpose. The purpose of our study is to evaluate the level of evidence (LOE) of spine surgery publications in the Arab countries and compare it with standard international literature in spine surgery and to determine the stand of the Arab nations academic production with that of the global one. Methods. An online search using "PubMed" and "Google Scholar" was carried out, using search terms related to spine surgery such as "Spine surgery," "Scoliosis," "Herniated disc." Each article was reviewed and graded by two reviewers using Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (OCEBM) Levels of Evidence scale. Results. We have identified 434 articles that met the inclusion criteria; 56% were level IV studies. The most common study design was case reports (42%). The number of Arab countries with publications in spine surgery was 18 countries. The country with the highest rate of publications was Egypt (26%). The quantity of the published studies increased from 151 in (2000-2008) to 283 in (2009-2015). There is statistical significance between high and low LOE articles (p = 0.0007). Conclusion. We have observed that LOE has not changed significantly over the period of 15 years and that much of the publications are of a low LOE (levels III and IV). We, herein, emphasize the need for spine surgeons in the Arab countries to conduct studies of higher LOE.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic representation of the review process.
Figure 2
Figure 2
A graphic demonstration of the percentage of published studies and their level of evidence between January 2000 and December 2008 in comparison with studies published between January 2009 and June 2015.
Figure 3
Figure 3
A graphic demonstration of the percentage of Arab countries contributions to spine surgery publications from January 2000 to June 2015.
Figure 4
Figure 4
A graphic display of the percentage of Arab countries contributions to spine surgery research from January 2000 to June 2015 according to LOE.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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