PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Yazid Maghrabi AU - Muad S. Baeesa AU - Jawaher Kattan AU - Abdulmalik Altaf AU - Saleh S. Baeesa TI - Level of evidence of abdominal surgery clinical research in Saudi Arabia AID - 10.15537/smj.2017.8.18456 DP - 2017 Aug 01 TA - Saudi Medical Journal PG - 788--793 VI - 38 IP - 8 4099 - http://smj.org.sa/content/38/8/788.short 4100 - http://smj.org.sa/content/38/8/788.full SO - Saudi Med J2017 Aug 01; 38 AB - Objectives: To quantify and evaluate the level of evidence (LOE) of Saudi publications in abdominal surgery and correlate the obtained results with that of other similar national and international studies.Methods: Study design was a systemic review. Literature search strategy was developed to retrieve available articles between January 2000 and December 2016 that are related to abdominal surgery utilizing PubMed and Google Scholar. Retrieved articles were analyzed in depth with several parameters, then evaluated using (OEBM) level of evidence scale.Results: One hundred and ninety-eight articles met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 50.5% were level III evidence studies. The most common study design was case reports (47%), and academic institutions had the highest rate of publications (47%).Conclusion: Saudi research in abdominal surgery published between 2000-2016 are of lower quality and of III and IV LOE, which is in the consistency with other specialties. We emphasize the need for promotion of a national and institutional research studies of I and II LOE with collaboration between different health care institutions.