Global Analysis of Chronic Osteomyelitis Publications with a Bibliometric Approach

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Although there have been innovations in the diagnosis and treatment of chronic osteomyelitis (CO), it is still considered as a challenging situation for both patients and clinicians. In this article, it was aimed to comprehensively examine publications on CO with bibliometric evaluation and to guide researchers and clinicians in reaching articles effectively in their literature searches.MATERIALS and METHODS: The Scopus bibliometric database was used to identify articles related to CO. Original research articles and reviews made between 1940 and 2021 including the words "chronic" and "osteomyelitis" in their titles and keywords were found. Publications were analyzed according to their research parameters, such as publication year, authors, publication language, institutions, keywords, funding institutions, citations and their field of study.RESULTS: There were a total of 2,881 publications on CO, and it was observed that the first publication was made in 1890. Among these publications, 2,565 (89.03%) were research articles and 129 (4.47%) were reviews. The United States of America was found to be the most prolific country with 484 (16.79%) articles; it was observed that the China Medical University Hospital was the leading institution in CO. Five hundred sixteen (17.91%) of the articles were published in open access (OA) journals. The largest number of articles on CO were published in the journal Vestnik Khirurgii Imeni II Grekova [n=57 (1.97%)]. The most commonly seen keyword was "osteomyelitis" [n=2,345 (81.39%)]. It was seen that most of the publications were in the field of medicine [n=2,724 (94.55%)] and the most cited article received 4,574 citations. The most pioneering funding sponsor in CO studies was the National Institutes of Health [n=30 (1.04%)]. Pediatricians constituted the majority of the most productive authors in CO studies.CONCLUSION: In this bibliometric study, the economic size and level of development of countries were important factors in terms of their academic publication efficiency in the field of CO. Developing countries should be encouraged to increase studies on this subject. Considering that the multidisciplinary approach is a significant factor in the follow-up and treatment of CO, we believe that the contributions of surgical branches to this subject should be improved.