Publications of physical and rehabilitation medicine physicians concerning musculoskeletal ultrasonography: an overview.

OBJECTIVE Interest in the use of musculoskeletal ultrasonography in the field of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation has increased significantly over recent years. In order to determine to what extent this growing interest among Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine physicians is resulting in publications, we reviewed the trend in publications by physiatrists on musculoskeletal ultrasonography. METHODS We searched retrospectively for all papers indexed in Science Citation Index-Expanded and Index Medicus in which "rehabilitation medicine" was addressed as at least one of the authors' affiliations (up to 2011). All papers were examined individually for the authors' affiliations, document types, publication years, countries, and journal categories. RESULTS A total of 171 papers was included in the study. After 2004, there appears to be a significant amount of increase in the number of publications. USA, Turkey, Taiwan and South Korea were the leading countries in which physiatrists carry out research and publish papers on musculoskeletal ultrasonography. The top 5 journal categories in which these papers were published were: Rehabilitation (44.3%), Orthopaedics (14.1%), Radiology (10.7%), Neurology (8.1%) and Rheumatology (6.7%). CONCLUSION The number of scientific publications by physiatrists about musculoskeletal ultrasonography is increasing in parallel with the interest regarding its routine use in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation clinics.