Current status of research on emergency surgery score in trauma patients: a bibliometric analysis

Zhiyong He; Zhenggang Chen; Qi Zuo; Guobing Peng; Weibing Tang; Enrico Giordan; Suresh Agarwal

doi:10.21037/tp-23-443

Current status of research on emergency surgery score in trauma patients: a bibliometric analysis

Transl Pediatr. 2023 Nov 28;12(11):2044-2052. doi: 10.21037/tp-23-443. Epub 2023 Nov 24.

Authors

Zhiyong He¹, Zhenggang Chen¹, Qi Zuo¹, Guobing Peng¹, Weibing Tang², Enrico Giordan³, Suresh Agarwal⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Emergency, Suzhou Kowloon Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
² Department of Critical Care Medicine, Suzhou Kowloon Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
³ Department of Neurosurgery, Aulss 2 Marca Trevigiana, Treviso, Italy.
⁴ Division of Trauma, Acute & Critical Care Surgery, Department of Surgery, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA.

Abstract

Background: The use of a relevant emergency score can provide an accurate assessment of the patient's condition and prognosis. However, the status of related studies remains unclear. The current study analyzed the research status of emergency surgery score (ESS) of trauma patients by using bibliometric methods.

Methods: The Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E) database in the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) was searched using keywords "trauma" and "emergency surgery score". All records from the search results and cited references were exported to Excel, duplicate literature records were removed, information for the same author and organization in different signature forms were merged. The resulting literatures were analyzed by year of publication, citation, discipline, countries and research institutions, journals, authors, and use of keywords. The cooperation among countries, institutions, and authors was also examined.

Results: A total of 2,175 document were retrieved. The number of published literature and the number of citations per year increased annually. The number of published documents (n=1,029) and research cooperation (centrality score, 0.44) in the United States were significantly ahead of those in other countries. The ten research institutions with the largest number of published documents were all from the United States, with much cooperation between research institutions and authors. There were many publications from China (n=108), but with few cooperations (centrality score, 0.22). The journals with the largest number of published articles were professional in the fields of trauma, emergency, and critical care. Keyword analysis showed that infection and shock were important issues besides surgery in the research related to ESS of trauma patients.

Conclusions: Research related to ESS of trauma patients has been mainly conducted in the United States, and Chinese researchers should increase their level of cooperation.

Keywords: Trauma; bibliometrics analysis; emergency surgery score (ESS).