A Bibliographic Analysis of Studies Published by Iranians in PubMed Related to Shoulder and Elbow

It is the goal of medicine discovery to help patients. It is therefore important to analyze studies published by Iranians in PubMed related to shoulder and elbow problems.

We conducted a bibliometric search to determine the number of papers published by Iranian scholars in PubMed related to shoulder and elbow.

A search in PubMed database was conducted using 129 keywords such as shoulder, cubitus, bankart, rotator cuff, olecranon, etc. Articles with at least one author from Iran published from 1995 to 2021 were selected. The selected papers were studied in terms of the institution name, study subject, total number of papers, study design, contribution rate of Iranian orthopedic surgeons each year, annual number of papers published by Iranians in five journals with the greatest impact factor, and in journals with an impact factor.

There were 463 eligible articles in the field of shoulder and elbow (17 per year); 89 (18%) were clinical trials, and 375 (82%) were retrospective studies. Fracture dislocations were the most common study subject (17%), 11 % related to shoulder and 6 % related to elbow. Among shoulder related articles, the most common study subjects were fracture dislocation (24%), brachial plexus (14%), rotator cuff (12%), and tumor (6%). In elbow related articles, the most common study subjects were fracture dislocations, tennis elbow, and cubital tunnel syndrome (23%, 21%, and 16%, respectively). 

Although the number of articles published by Iranians in the field of shoulder and elbow in PubMed has increased significantly in recent years, there is still a long way for Iran to become a science exporting country.