Growing Trend of the Arab Surgeons' Contribution in Spine Surgery: A Systemic Review of the Top-Ranked Spine Journals:

IntroductionSpine surgery is a very rapidly developing subspecialty worldwide. Although through history, Arab surgeons have made valuable contributions to medicine and surgery, the quantity and quality of modern research production of the Arab spine surgeons is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the contribution of the Arab surgeons to this field.MethodsA systemic review of the PubMed/Medline including the top 5 spine journals: Spine, The Spine Journal (TSJ), European Spine Journal (ESJ), Journal of Neurosurgery; Spine (JNS) and Journal of Spinal Disorders and Techniques (its older version Journal of Spinal Disorders, as well) (JSD). Articles published before the end of July 2015 have been included. At least one affiliation or one author must be based in one of the 22 Arab countries. Analysis of the number of articles published from each country, type of study, institution, impact factor (JCR 2014) and trend of publications frequency over years. The quality of research publications was assessed by n...