Global trends and hotspots in robotic surgery over the past decade: a bibliometric and visualized analysis

Since its introduction, robotic surgery has experienced rapid development and has been extensively implemented across various medical disciplines. It is crucial to comprehend the advancements in research and the evolutionary trajectory of its thematic priorities. This research conducted a bibliometric analysis on the literature pertaining to robotic surgery, spanning the period from 2014 to 2023, sourced from the Web of Science database. The objective was to delineate the publication trends and trace the development of research topics within the domain of robotic surgery. From 2014 to 2023, there has been a consistent upward trend in the annual volume of publications concerning robotic surgery. The United States emerges as the leading country in terms of both the number of publications (n=3402) and citations (n=57731). The Journal of Robotic Surgery has the highest number of publications (n=506), while IEEE Transactions on Robotics has the highest number of citations (n=53). Yonsei University is the institution with the greatest number of publications (n=196), and the University of Washington has the highest average citation count (n=30). Alexandre Mottrie is the author with the most publications and citations (n=70 publications, n=1816 citations). Keyword analysis revealed seven distinct clusters: (1) applications and techniques of robotic surgery; (2) urological surgery and associated complications; (3) gastrointestinal diseases and surgical interventions; (4) robotic thyroid surgery and related complications; (5) gynecological diseases and corresponding surgical procedures; (6) Da Vinci robot and its training; (7) pulmonary diseases and associated surgeries. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been identified as a newly emerging keyword in the field. The corpus of literature on robotic surgery has seen a steady rise over the past decade, marked by extensive collaboration among various countries, institutions, and researchers. This study has delineated the global trends, identified research hotspots, highlighted emerging topics, and outlined the foundational knowledge within the field of robotic surgery. Looking forward, the integration of AI with robotic surgery is poised to offer substantial benefits and is anticipated to become a pivotal trend and area of focus in the field's future advancement.