Evolutionary dynamics and research hotspots of phage applications against Klebsiella pneumoniae infections from the past to the new era.

BACKGROUND: Klebsiella pneumoniae is a critical opportunistic pathogen, with carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae and hypervirulent K. pneumoniae posing severe threats to global public health due to escalating antimicrobial resistance. As natural bacterial predators, phages represent a highly promising alternative to conventional antibiotics. The aim of this study was to systematically evaluate the research landscape, collaborative networks, and evolutionary trends of phage applications against Klebsiella pneumoniae infections through bibliometric analysis. METHODS: Core bibliographic data were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus, and PubMed databases. Following rigorous literature screening based on predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, mainstream bibliometric analysis tools, including VOSviewer and CiteSpace, were comprehensively deployed to map and analyze the temporal dynamics of publication outputs, international collaboration networks among countries, institutions, authors, and journals, reference co-citation matrices, and keyword co-occurrence configurations, alongside timeline visualizations and citation burst detection, thereby systematically delineating the evolutionary blueprint of this research domain. RESULTS: A total of 1,275 valid original publications were ultimately enrolled. Chronologically, the global annual publication volume exhibited a pronounced exponential growth trajectory (y = 3.4589⋅e 0.2381(x-2007), R 2 = 0.9706). Geographically and structurally, China ranked first globally in research productivity with 242 documents (18.98%), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (49 documents) and investigator Jianqiang Li (30 documents) were identified as the most prolific institution and core author, respectively. Regarding publishing channels, Frontiers in Microbiology dominated in both publication scale (55 documents) and network integration density (TLS = 237). Research hotspot evolution indicated a profound paradigm shift, where contemporary citation bursts are significantly dominated by "phage resistance" (strength = 3.34) and "lytic activity" (strength = 2.77), with both frontiers remaining actively sustained into 2026. CONCLUSION: Over the past two decades, research has expanded exponentially, with the knowledge architecture transitioning from descriptive biological characterization to deep genetic mechanisms and engineering-driven design. Future efforts should prioritize elucidating the molecular mechanisms of phage resistance, optimizing lytic enzyme efficacy, and accelerating multicenter translational interventions to combat multi-drug resistant K. pneumoniae.