Abstract:Objective To find out the development status and trends of virtual reality (VR) technology in surgical patients by summarizing the research hotspots in its application. Methods With “virtual reality” and “operation” as the subject words, the relevant literature on the application of VR technology in surgical patients from the establishment of the database to July 2023 was retrieved in the core collection of Web of Science, and the bibliographic co-occurrence analysis system was introduced to extract high-frequency keywords and generate a word matrix. The gCLUTO was used for co-word clustering analysis to generate clustering matrix diagrams and visual hill maps. Results A total of 1 672 articles were retrieved, and 354 effective articles were ultimately included after deduplication and screening. There were 27 high-frequency keywords obtained, and cluster analysis identified 4 hotspots, which were classified into 3 directions: research on VR technology improvement and integration with other technologies, research on VR technology and patient outcome indicators, and research on VR technology improving the skills of surgical staff. Conclusion The current research on the application of VR technology in surgical patients is rapidly developing. In the future, further research can focus on improving the design of VR devices and elderly postoperative rehabilitation.