The Neurosurgical Research Progress of 98 Low and Lower Middle-Income Countries from 1928 to 2024

Objective: The aim of the present study was to analyze the trends of neurosurgical research in low and lower middle-income countries (LLMICs).

Methods: The data was retrieved from Scopus database and 82 neurosurgical journals were analyzed.

Results: Initially the global research scholarly output (n = 195,658) was explored and later papers originating solely from LLMICs, without international collaboration with advance countries (n = 8408) were analyzed. The per decade number of publications (from 1920 to May 2024), top ten authors, universities, countries and sources of all (global) countries, and 98 LLMICs is provided. Eighty countries have published less than 50 papers. Even more striking, 68, 55, 38, and 36 LLMICs countries have produced less than 20, 10, 5, and 3 papers, respectively. The keywords analysis was performed to present the main focus of 8408 publications. The top 1000 most cited documents were also identified, and later relevant scientometrics details were provided. The top countries dynamic and most prolific authors (on the basis of number of publications, total citations, h-index, g-index, and m-index) in the top 1000 cited documents (from LLMICs) are highlighted.

Conclusions: The findings suggest that neurosurgical research in LLMICs is low, which could be attributed to several factors including limited funding, inadequate infrastructure, and insufficient training opportunities.