Trends in topics presented as posters at the Scoliosis Research Society (SRS) annual meetings for the last 7 years: implications of an SRS annual meeting abstract registry (Part II)

Purpose Analyzing and comparing past Scoliosis Research Society (SRS) poster and podium presentations would allow members to see trends in areas of interest and help authors guide future research efforts. Methods Abstract books from 2011 to 2017 were retrieved and titles were extracted. From each title and abstract body, keywords were identified and collected. Keywords were categorized into several groups: subjects of study, topics not related to treatment, conservative treatment, surgery, treatment result, complications, revision, long-term follow-up, cost, and questionnaire. Each category was subcategorized based on specific topics. Assignments of keywords were manually checked against their abstracts. The frequency of each keyword was ranked to represent areas of interest and trended according to year. The results were compared to trends in podium presentations. Results The most popular keywords in each group were similar to those of the podium presentations. There has been an increasing trend for: Early Onset Scoliosis, Radiographic Diagnosis, and Sagittal Alignment. There has been a decreasing trend for: Neuromuscular, X-ray, Posterior Surgery, Osteotomy, Pedicle Screws, Mental Failure/Misplaced Screw, Revision, and Hospital Stay. The distribution of topics of the poster presentation was not significantly different from those of podium presentation, but podium has more long-term follow-up studies. Conclusion We report trends in SRS poster presentations. We found no significant difference between the topics of poster and those of podium presentations. We hope this data could help members better prepare for future meetings.