The current status of hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgical literature.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: A rapidly growing knowledge base has evolved describing recently developed diagnostic and therapeutic techniques in the management of hepatic-pancreatic-biliary (HPB) disease. As such, it is expected that the current literature should reflect these trends in the emerging specialty of HPB surgery. METHODS: The content of 10 leading surgical journals was assessed for the separate years 1998 and 2002 using a combination of hand searching and Medline searching using the Pubmed search engine. Data retrieved for each journal included: total number/type of publication, specialty category, disease focus and comment on surgical technique. RESULTS: A total of 817 HPB articles were reviewed (386 in 1998,431 in 2002). Half of the journals showed an absolute increase in the number of HPB articles published; the largest increase was for Surgery (12%; 2002: 64/431; 1998: 10/386, p<0.0001), while the British Journal of Surgery displayed the greatest decrease (11%; 2002: 56/431; 1998: 94/386, p<0.0001). Publication by the nature of disease revealed that overall, there was a trend towards a greater volume of publications on malignant disease over the 4-year period (1998: 41%; 2002: 56%). Furthermore, 91% (10/11) of articles published by the Canadian Journal of Surgery related to benign disease; while almost all (97%) of the articles published by the Annals of Surgical Oncology were on malignant disease. There was a difference in the pathology focus for each sub-category of HPB topics. Fifty percent (150/302) of the articles on hepatic disease focused on malignancy, as compared with 46% (124/272) of those on pancreatic disease and 21% (44/213) of those on biliary disease. A comment on surgical technique was uniform across all categories (47% hepatic, 48% pancreatic and 44% biliary). DISCUSSION: Articles dealing with HPB topics are published widely across all reviewed journals. Although the absolute number of HPB articles published increased over a 4-year period, there is significant variability in overall topics and focus of publication between journals. Overall, there was a uniform paucity of basic science articles, evidence-based reviews and/or meta-analyses, indicating an opportunity for growth in the future.

SUBMITTER: Karmali S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2043110 | biostudies-other | 2005

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other