Where art thou diabetic foot disease literature? A bibliometric inquiry into publication patterns

The objective of the present investigation was to evaluate the published scientific data with respect to the diabetic foot. We specifically aimed to assess the quantity published and the specific location of the published reports. A standard PubMed(®) search was performed, and the returned abstracts were evaluated by a 2-person panel for their relevance to medical professionals working within the field of diabetic foot disease. We identified 1286 relevant studies published in 659 different journals in 2012. We also found a 6.94-fold increase in returned abstracts meeting our search criteria from January 1988 to December 2012. The results of our investigation provide unique information regarding the high volume and variety of published information pertaining to diabetic foot disease and perhaps highlights a need for multidisciplinary thinking with respect to publishing and data organization, in addition to patient care.