ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Surg.
Sec. Cardiovascular Surgery
Bibliometric Mapping of Artificial Intelligence Research in Surgical Education (1997-2025)
Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, Guangzhou, China
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Abstract
Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming surgical education, yet comprehensive analysis of research trends in this field remains limited. Methods: We analyzed publications from the Web of Science Core Collection using "surgery" AND "education" AND "artificial intelligence" as search terms (1997-2025). Bibliometric indicators were analyzed using the bibliometrix package in R. Results: We identified 572 publications by 3,228 authors across 332 journals, with an 18.39% annual growth rate. The United States and United Kingdom led research output, with Harvard University as the top contributing institution. "Augmented reality", "video", and "performance" emerged as mature research themes (motor themes), while large language models represent recent emerging topics. International collaboration accounted for 25.17% of publications, predominantly among developed nations. Citation analysis revealed human-robot interaction and AI-based simulation training as the most influential research topics. Conclusions: AI research in surgical education shows rapid growth but significant geographic disparities exist. Future efforts should focus on developing personalized learning systems and addressing the global digital divide in AI-enhanced surgical education.
Summary
Keywords
AI, artificial intelligence, Biblio metrics, Surgery, surgical education
Received
03 December 2025
Accepted
17 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Wu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Jinlin Wu
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