Knowledge mapping of frailty and surgery: a bibliometric and visualized analysis.

Purpose: Frailty is common in surgical patients and is closely associated with postoperative outcomes.

Aims: This study employed bibliometric methods to summarize and analyze research related to frailty and surgery, comprehensively analyzing the research structure and providing visualized maps.

Methods: This study analyzed the volume of publications, countries, institutions, authors, journals, references, and keywords related to perioperative frailty in the Web of Science Core Collection from 1978 to 2024. Visual bibliometric analyses were conducted from multiple perspectives, including collaboration networks, citation analysis, and keyword clustering.

Results: From 1978 to 2024, 21,879 authors from 95 countries and regions published 4,119 papers on perioperative frailty in 973 journals worldwide. The United States has the most publications, while Italy has the highest degree of international collaboration. The University of California System has the highest number of publications. The University of Kansas Medical Center is the institution with the highest centrality. The top nine authors in terms of publication volume are all from the USA. Bowers Christian A. is the most prolific author. The Journal of Vascular Surgery is the journal with the most publications. Current research directions include preoperative risk assessment of frailty, the relationship between frailty and postoperative complications, elderly frailty, and the relationship between frailty and sarcopenia. Research hotspots include risk stratification, postoperative delirium, the elderly, and sarcopenia.

Conclusion: This study has identified the research hotspots and trends in perioperative frailty. Our findings will enable researchers to understand this field's knowledge structure better and identify future research directions.