Pediatric and Adult Urological Publications: Trend over the Last 15 Years between 1996 and 2010.

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to determine the trends in urological publications from 1996 to 2010. METHODS We retrieved as many urology-related articles as possible from Medline articles between 1 January 1996 and 31 December 2010, and attempted to retrieve as many urology articles as possible from all Medline recorded journals (urology-specific and non-urology-specific journals indiscriminately), using the key words: "urology", "pediatric urology", "bladder", "kidney"and others. The search was limited to "all adults"(i.e. adult urology), "all children" (i.e. pediatric urology) as well as female and male urology. We repeated the search by using a certain limit each time according to the publication types as classified by Medline, and collected the total number of publications per year for the 15 years of the specified period. Regression analysis was used to determine the effect of the publication year upon the number of publications of each type. RESULTS There was a steady increase over time in the number of total publications both in pediatric and adult urology, with a sharper rise in the number of meta-analysis publications. At the same time there was a decrease in the number of case reports over the last years. CONCLUSIONS New medical information available to urology and pediatric urology specialists increases over time and thus increases.