To analyze the research distribution, classic literature, hotspots and frontiers of septic shock.

Studies that described septic shock published in the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM) from January 1, 1977 to December 31, 2017 were included. And the cooperation map between the provinces and core authors related to septic shock, the frequency of occurrence of research keywords, and cluster analysis were obtained by means of visual analysis software Ucinet 6.

In recent years, the research on septic shock in China has shown an increasing trend year by year, but the research power was mainly concentrated in the relatively developed regions of the central and eastern regions such as Guangdong, Beijing and Jiangsu, while less researches in Inner Mongolia, Qinghai and Tibet that were relatively poor area. The core research team was mainly consisted of Professor Liu Dawei, Professor Du Bin who are located in Peking Union Medical College Hospital, and Professor Qiu Haibo in Zhongda Hospital Southeast University. For the research hotspots, the current research hotspots are confusing. Most studies focused on the treatment, nursing and prognosis of septic shock in recent years, but few studies focused on the pathogenic factors, testing methods, pathological processes and microcirculation of septic shock. And there were few collaborative studies between hospitals across provinces and cities.

There are more than 400 research articles on septic shock in the past decade, which are mainly concentrated in the hospitals of the central and eastern provinces with the Department of Critical Care Medicine and mainly focus on the treatment and prognosis of septic shock. In the future, researches on pathogenic factors and pathological processes should be strengthened, and cross-provincial and multidisciplinary research need to be formed.