Characterizing the progress in traumatic brain injuries research in North Africa: a systematic review

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) represents a major health concern worldwide. Currently, systematic TBI studies in North Africa are lacking. Nevertheless, they are highly needed to ameliorate TBI outcomes and increase survival rates among TBI patients. Through this systematic review, we aimed to characterize the progress in TBI research in North Africa and analyse the literature on TBI in the region in the last two decades. A review of North African articles was performed over 22 years (2000-2021) and the required data were collected using keywords: "traumatic brain injury", "traumatic brain damage", "traumatic head injury", and "traumatic head damage". Abstracts were screened, and selected eligible studies were reviewed independently by two reviewers. The review included 22 studies within the 59,204, 63,083, and 45,918 records that were identified between 2000 and 2021 through Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed, respectively. The proportion of the total global TBI records that relate to North Africa was less than 1%. Overall, the indices show low progress in the number of new records occurring every year in North Africa and all the records in North Africa were produced after the year 2004. The results show that North Africa has witnessed a low production in TBI research, and the progress is far from being equal to other regions. Production of scientific publications, providing the required information and raising awareness about complications resulting from TBI on individuals and society in general, should be considered.