OBJECTIVE: to explore temporal trends, geographical distribution and socioeconomic determinants of scientific production in the field of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases (CCD) rehabilitation. DATA SOURCES: Citations from 1967 to 2008 were downloaded from the PubMed database. Core of the search strategy was the keyword cardiovascular diseases in the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) major field [majr] with the subheading rehabilitation. Journal Citation Reports was used to assign impact factor (IF). Demographic and economic data were retrieved from International Monetary Fund. STUDY SELECTION: All papers retrieved were included in the bibliometric analysis. DATA EXTRACTION: The search strategy was validated on a random sample of the papers retrieved. The search quality reflected the level of error of the PubMed database. DATA SYNTHESIS: Publications retrieved were 10,379 and have grown 8.6 times in 40 years, faster than the all-diseases rehabilitation field (7.8 times), with a particularly steep growth for cerebrovascular diseases in the last fifteen years (5 times). However, in the last decade the papers quality (IF) decreased. From 1994 to 2008, 3,466 citations were retrieved: 44.4% came from the European Union (EU), and 30.3% from the US. The highest mean IF was reported for France (4.127). UK and some relatively small Northern EU countries had the best ratio between IF (sum) and resident population (Pop) or gross domestic product (GDP). The most frequently used keyword was 'Stroke' and three journals (Arch Phys Med Rehabil, Clin Rehabil and Stroke) published one quarter of the papers. CONCLUSIONS: The overall scientific production in the field of CCD rehabilitation showed a steep growth in the last decade, especially because of cerebrovascular research. In the same period a decrease of the overall IF was observed. EU and the US contributed three papers out of four in the field, although some Asian countries showed promising performance.