Conversion Rate of Abstracts Presented at Regional Plastic Surgery Conferences in the United States

Background: Conference presentations are a crucial instrument for disseminating research and measuring academic productivity in plastic surgery education. Much attention has been given to outcomes of abstracts presented at national conferences, but less so in regional settings. To better understand the validity and ultimate outcomes of abstracts presented at regional conferences, we evaluated their trends in abstract-to-peer-reviewed publication conversion. Methods: Regional plastic surgery conferences’ publicly available oral abstract information for 2022 and 2023 was used to find corresponding full-length publications using keywords and author names. Abstract topic, study design, and author institutions/degrees were collected and evaluated for their influence on publication odds and lag time within 2.5 years of presentation. Results: Southeast (SESPRS), Northeast (NESPS), New England (NESPRS), California (CSPS), Ohio Valley (OVSPS), and Mountain West (MWSPS) conferences were evaluated and compared with national conferences [Plastic Surgery Research Council (PSRC) and American Association of Plastic Surgeons (AAPS) annual meetings]. 2.5-year publication time ( P =0.050) and odds ( P <0.01) differed significantly across conferences, as did the composition of abstract topics and study designs ( P <0.01). The journals that published abstracts also differed significantly by conference ( P <0.01). CSPS, NESPS, and SESPRS had comparable publication conversion rates (66.7% to 68.4%) as national conferences (65.7% to 69.6%) and published in plastic surgery journals more often (87.3% to 92.3% vs. 56.5% to 80.0%). Notably, NESPS and OVSPS abstracts presented on medical education and reconstruction/microsurgery more often, respectively, and also published these topics with greater frequency. On multivariate analysis, abstract year strongly influenced the odds of an abstract converting to a full-length, peer-reviewed, published manuscript within 2.5 years (OR=0.67, P <0.01). Database, systematic review, and retrospective clinical studies increased 2.5-year conversion odds (OR≥3.04, P ≤0.036), whereas MWSPS and OVSPS conference abstracts had lower odds ( P ≤0.012). The only significant predictor of the time from presentation to publication was presentation of an abstract at PSRC (β=−2.73, P =0.021). Conclusions: Regional conferences contribute equally to research metrics, but differences in real-world impact and peer-reviewed outputs exist. However, these trends are not necessarily inferior to those of national conferences. Different regions also generate more abstracts on specific plastic surgery topics, although such specializations rarely persist into published full-length manuscripts.