The global landscape of robot-assisted pedicle screws: a bibliometric and thematic evolution analysis.

Robot-assisted pedicle screw placement has become an increasingly visible area of spinal surgery research because of its potential to improve instrumentation accuracy, procedural safety, and operative planning. As robotic platforms have expanded, the corresponding literature has also grown, creating the need for a focused evaluation of how this field has developed. The objective of this study was to analyze the global research landscape, bibliometric characteristics, thematic evolution, and major contributors in the scientific literature on robot-assisted pedicle screw placement. We conducted a descriptive bibliometric study using records retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus databases. Data were analyzed with the Bibliometrix package in R to evaluate publication trends, prolific authors, highly cited articles, journals, countries, institutional affiliations, collaboration networks, and keyword co-occurrence. Scientific output increased markedly from the late 2010s through 2025, with China and the United States accounting for most publications and much of the international collaboration. The most influential articles focused mainly on the accuracy and safety of robot-assisted pedicle screw placement relative to conventional techniques. This bibliometric and thematic analysis clarifies how research in this field has been structured and where it has concentrated over time, helping to identify current priorities and underexplored directions for future investigation.