The Latin American Journey of the Cardiovascular Surgeons-Scientist through Inspiration, Roadblocks, and Resilience: Visual and Bibliometric Review of The Last 20 Years

W. Cubas¹, G. Soca¹, V. Dayan², M. Hernandez¹, S. Cubas¹, C. Sosa-Vota¹, J. Montero^1
1Cardiovascular Surgery National Institute, Montevideo, Montevideo ²Cardiovascular University Center, Montevideo, Montevideo

Purpose: For many years the academic and research contribution of Cardiovascular Surgeons-Scientific [CSS] has been unnoticed and uncertain in Latin America until now. Our study will analyze and explore the bibliometric production of the CSS over the last 20 years and its impact on Latin American cardiovascular surgery.

Methods: A bibliometric-visual study using the Scopus database [2004-2024] searched 95 major thesauri in Latin American cardiovascular surgery. The collection included general data on scientific publications, authorship, citations, trends, production curves, collaborative networks, geographical distributions, journals, topics, sponsorship, funding, and analysis of scientific and economic development factors in Latin America. Poisson regression models, potential curves, and bibliometric-visual analysis were done with Bibliometrix, a tool of the R programming language.

Results: 8559 publications were analyzed [2.5% from global], 77.41% were original articles and case reports, the annual scientific growth rate was 2.42%, and 47171 authors were analyzed [Males, 65.8%; Faculty-Surgeon, 61.15%]. Brazil [47.26%] had the highest scientific production, international co-authorship was 33.12%, mean number of publications per year of 427.95, and citations per paper of 19.43. The main journals were the Brazilian Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery [Q3], Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia [Q3], and Revista Argentina de Cardiología [Q3], and the main topics were Congenital Heart Disease [41.67%] and coronary-valvular revascularization surgery [56.17%]. 67.63% were self-funded publications and the main collaboration network was with USA and Canada [40.07%]. The scientific production curve showed the highest peak was in 2022 [755 papers] with a sharp drop of 61.1% towards 2023-2024 [279 papers] [Table 01]. In the potential curve of scientific production vs. gross domestic product per capita [Y=0.0014x1.259, R2=0.0149], Brazil led [4045/8918$] followed by Argentina [1168/13904$] [Figure 01].

Conclusion: This is the first bibliometric registry of SSCs and their impact on cardiovascular care in Latin America has been growing progressively and could be related to high-income countries. However, factors such as the past COVID-19 pandemic, inefficient governmental research policies, and the limited innovation spirit may have delayed its development.

Identify the source of the funding for this research project: Self-funding