Publication rate of Trauma abstracts presented at an International Orthopaedic conference

Oral presentations at major conferences are often used to present new material and generate discussion. However, conference abstracts that ultimately fail to be published are of little use to the wider medical community. The aim of this study was to evaluate the publication rate of trauma papers presented at an international orthopaedic conference, and to assess the factors which predict publication.

All abstracts presented orally at the trauma sessions of the European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (EFORT) Congresses in 1999 (Belgium) and 2001 (Greece) were assessed. A MEDLINE and EMBASE search was performed to identify articles written by the first, second and last authors of each abstract to identify a matching journal article. Subspecialty, country of origin of abstract, study type, journal of publication and publication year were tabulated.

Two hundred and seventy eight trauma abstracts were presented orally, and 112 (40.3%) achieved subsequent publication. Abstracts on fractures of the proximal femur were the most common (18.7%) and had one of the highest rates of publication (44.2%). Greece and the UK provided the largest number of abstracts, and randomised trials were the study type with the highest rate of publication (80.0%). Thirty two percent of journal articles appeared within 1 year of the conference and 63% within 2 years. Injury was the journal most likely to publish the articles.

About 60% of Trauma abstracts presented did not result in a subsequent full-text publication. The citation of conference proceedings should be discouraged, and clinicians should be wary of implementing information gleaned from conference presentations into their clinical practice.