To investigate the research progress of septic cardiomyopathy from 2000 to 2020 based on knowledge visualization analysis.

The relevant literatures in septic cardiomyopathy were collected from Web of Science (WOS) and China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI) database from 2000 to 2020. Excel 2019 software was used to show the growth trend of published number. CiteSpace 5.0 R1 software was used to extract and sort out the information of countries, institutions and authors, and then generate the relevant cooperative network, which shows the distribution and the major research forces. Meanwhile, keywords and the relevant reference were used to draw the co-cited literature network which reveals the frontier and hotpots in this field.

A total of 774 Chinese and 1883 English were collected. In Chinese paper, only the number of published articles, authors and research institutions were statistically described, but all English literatures were included in visual analysis. The number of literatures related to septic cardiomyopathy at home and abroad increased rapidly from 2000 to 2020, and the number of English literatures was more than that of Chinese literatures. According to the analysis of English literature, the top three countries in the world were the United States (618 articles), China (441 articles) and Germany (140 articles). In terms of research institutions, Wuhan University ranked first with 29 papers, followed by Texas University and Harvard University. The research institution that published the most papers in Chinese was Shanghai University of Chinese Medicine (16 papers). According to the author's co-presentation network analysis, four major scientific research groups have been formed in the world, among which Horton JW, Neviere R, Li CF and Thiemermann C have made the largest contribution to this field which Chinese scholars also had a strong research momentum in this field. Keywords co-occurrence analysis, according to a research hotpot focused exclusively on the cardiac function and prognosis in patients with sepsis. Results of analysis of the exploding keywords revealed that the domestic literatures focus on drugs for sepsis cardiomyopathy management, while foreign literature focus on the pathogenesis of sepsis cardiomyopathy and management. Co-cited literature network analysis showed that future research on septic cardiomyopathy should also focus on the aspects of clinical-pathophysiological mechanism-management, which was consistent with the results of the bursting keywords analysis.

Knowledge visualization analysis show that the major research forces in septic cardiomyopathy are mostly concentrated in developed countries such as the United States and European countries, but Chinese scholars have a strong momentum. Future research trends tend to focus on the mechanism and treatment management of septic cardiomyopathy.