A bibliometric study on the subject of decompression sickness in China

Abstract

Objective To reveal the present research status of decompression sickness in China through the approach of literature analysis on the subject of decompression sickness.Methods The Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM) was chosen as the tool of study and related literature was systematically retrieved.With the aid of Note Express,Excel and manual processing,dates of publication,subject distribution,authors,authors' institutions,regional contributors (provinces and cities) and journals were analyzed.Results A total of 369 articles were retrieved on the subject of decompression sickness,and 32 were from foundation support research programs,accounting for 8.67％.On the whole,the amount of literature tended to increase year by year.In total,there were 252 first authors,and 77.38％ of them just published one article(195/252).The most frequently used 10 MESH words were:decompression sickness,case report,hyperbaric oxygen,diving,spinal cord disease,disease model,animal,diving medicine,aviation,spinal cord lesion and osteonecrosis.Eighty per cent of research authors and contributors were distributed in Shanghai,Shandong,Beijing,Liaoning,Guangdong,and Shanxi.Conclusions Since 1980,systematic research has been made on decompression sickness and great progress has been made in this respect. Key words: Decompression sickness; Bibliometrics; Chinese biomedical literature database