(1558) Review and Bibliometric Analysis: A Decade of Sepsis Research in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

Introduction: Sepsis is a critical condition associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. Understanding the landscape of sepsis research is crucial for identifying common themes, recognizing gaps requiring further investigation, and pinpointing opportunities for collaborative research. This study is a bibliometric analysis evaluating sepsis research conducted in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR).

Methods: A literature search was conducted to identify clinical research in sepsis with at least one author affiliation from the EMR. We searched Medline, Embase, and Scopus, from January 2014 through July 2024, using terms for sepsis, septic shock, and countries within the EMR. Two reviewers screened the articles independently; any discrepancies were resolved before data extraction. We included prospective and retrospective original clinical research and excluded reviews, meta-analysis, case reports, and in-vitro studies. Data extracted included publication year, country(s) involved, study design, patient population, sample size, and the research area. Descriptive statistics were used to report the findings.

Results: The search retrieved a total of 10,691 articles, among which 580 met the inclusion criteria of being original clinical research in the field of sepsis and with authors affiliated with institutions from the EMR. Over the years, there was an increase in the number of sepsis research, with the highest number of publications in the years between 2020 and 2022. The countries with the most publications were Egypt (n=250, 43%), Iran (n=116, 20%), and Saudi Arabia (n=105, 18%). Most of the research were single center studies (n=521, 90%) and had sample sizes ranging between 9 and 27,916. The most common patient populations were adults (n=262, 45%), followed by neonates (n=220, 38%) and pediatrics (n=80, 14%). The most common fields of research were clinical biomarkers (n=147, 25%), epidemiology (n=106, 18%), and drug therapy (n=80, 14%).

Conclusions: In this study, we demonstrated a significant increase in research from the EMR in the field of sepsis over the past decade. Most research was single-centered, conducted in Egypt and Iran, involved adults, and evaluated clinical biomarkers of sepsis.