Global research landscape and hot‑spot evolution of telesurgery in urology: A bibliometric analysis based on Web of...

To systematically delineate the research landscape and evolutionary trajectory of telesurgery in urology, analyze the global research architecture, core research forces, and frontier hotspot evolution patterns, and provide a bibliometric basis for clinical translation and future research in this field. The Web of Science Core Collection was searched for literature on urological telesurgery from database inception to May 3, 2026. The language was restricted to English, and document types were limited to "Article" or "Review." A total of 181 publications were finally included after screening. Multiple bibliometric tools were employed for multi-dimensional analysis: Microsoft Excel 2024 was used to analyze temporal trends in annual publication output and total citation counts; VOSviewer 1.6.20 was used to construct co-occurrence networks of countries/regions, institutions, authors, and journals; CiteSpace 6.4.R1 was used for keyword co-occurrence, clustering analysis, timeline mapping, and burst detection to parse the knowledge structure and hotspot evolution pathways; and the Bibliometrix 4.1.1 package was supplemented to visualize national collaboration patterns and core terminologies. Since 1996, the overall publication output in urological telesurgery has shown a fluctuating upward trend, with a rapid burst phase during 2024-2025. In 2025, 35 articles were published with 898 total citations, indicating that academic impact grew significantly faster than publication volume. In the global research landscape, the United States has long held a dominant position, with absolute advantages in publication scale, core institutions, and international collaboration networks. China started later but has shown the fastest output growth in recent years, though its depth of international collaboration and academic influence still have considerable room for improvement. High-productivity and highly cited authors are predominantly European and American scholars, forming two distinct contribution models: sustained clinical cohort research and foundational theoretical studies. Research outputs are mainly published in authoritative specialty journals of robotic surgery and urology. Keyword analysis reveals that robotic surgery is the core theme, with renal and prostate procedures being the main clinical application scenarios. The field has undergone three developmental stages: laparoscopic technique exploration, clinical feasibility validation, and long-term clinical outcome evaluation. Current frontiers include 5G networks, telepresence surgery, and long-term follow-up outcomes. Urological telesurgery has progressed beyond the nascent stage of technological exploration and entered a phase of rapid development characterized by clinical validation and scaled application. Future efforts should focus on multi-center, prospective clinical studies, refinement of technical standards and safety evaluation systems, and deep integration of robotic technology, communication networks, and artificial intelligence to facilitate cross-regional sharing of high-quality urological healthcare resources.