Global research trends and hotspots of bioresorbable occluders for congenital heart disease: a bibliometric analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Bioresorbable occluders have become an important research direction in the interventional treatment of congenital heart disease. Existing reviews have mainly synthesized materials, device designs, and experimental or clinical outcomes, whereas the field's global research structure and temporal evolution remain insufficiently quantified. This study therefore aimed to map research on bioresorbable occluders for congenital heart disease from 2006 to 2026, including its publication trajectory, collaborative structure, knowledge base, thematic evolution, and emerging fronts. METHODS: We searched the Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus databases for related publications from January 2006 to May 2026, limiting document types to articles and reviews and language to English. Bibliometric analysis and visualization were performed using Bibliometrix (R package), VOSviewer, and CiteSpace. Analytic dimensions included annual publication trends, country/region collaboration networks, institutional distribution, journal output, highly cited articles, author collaboration networks, keyword co-occurrence and burst detection, and LDA topic modeling. RESULTS: A total of 105 publications were included. Annual publication output exhibited marked year-to-year fluctuations, with a local increase during 2009-2012 and renewed, although variable, research activity after 2021; the highest annual output was recorded in 2025 (n = 13). Based on affiliation-derived country occurrence counts, China showed the highest representation (266 occurrences) and total citation count (801), followed by the United States and Germany. The United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore, and the Netherlands also demonstrated substantial citation impact. After keyword harmonization, co-occurrence and clustering analyses identified interconnected themes involving congenital defect closure, bioresorbable materials and devices, catheter-based and echocardiography-guided procedures, advanced materials and manufacturing, tissue integration, and clinical outcomes. Burst analysis demonstrated a transition from conventional septal occluders and imaging-guided catheterization toward bioresorbable and percutaneous closure technologies, with bioresorbable, transcatheter closure, bioresorbable occluder and percutaneous closure remaining active through 2026. CONCLUSION: Research on bioresorbable occluders for congenital heart disease is accelerating from technical validation toward clinical translation, with China showing prominent representation in the affiliation-derived country distribution and occupying a central position in the international collaboration network. Research attention has expanded from conventional septal occlusion and catheter-based procedures toward bioresorbable materials and devices, degradation and mechanical performance, endothelialization, tissue regeneration, and advanced manufacturing. Recent attention to multicenter evaluation, residual shunt, and migraine further suggests increasing interest in clinical translation and post-closure outcomes. Future research should emphasize the biomechanical coupling mechanisms between degradation kinetics and tissue repair, integrated intelligent functional design, and construction of long-term real-world data risk assessment systems. Deep interdisciplinary integration and global collaborative innovation are expected to drive the vision of intervention without permanent implants and definitive healing toward realization in this field.