Abstract: BACKGROUND: The number of patients receiving total knee arthroplasty has been increasing globally each year. Pain management is a crucial aspect following total knee arthroplasty, as effective pain control can facilitate early mobilization, reduce complications, enhance patient satisfaction, and accelerate the rehabilitation process. 
OBJECTIVE: To construct a visual map of post-total knee arthroplasty pain, understand the international research status and trends in this field, and provide a reference for future studies.
METHODS: Relevant research articles on post-total knee arthroplasty pain were retrieved from the CNKI, WanFang Data, and Web of Science core databases, covering the period from January 2000 to December 2023. The CiteSpace software (version 6.2.3) was used to analyze the annual publication output, authors, institutions, countries, keywords, and references. Utilizing R programming language (version 4.4.1), a database was established to create line charts and bar graphs. 
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: (1) Our analysis included 3 796 publications, predominantly in Chinese (3 509 articles) with the remainder in English (287 articles). (2) The United States was the most productive country in English literature, with Harvard University leading institutional output. Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine was the top publishing institution in Chinese literature. (3) Keyword clustering identified “quality of life,” “phobia,” and “acupuncture” as emerging focal points in Chinese literature, while “satisfaction” and “psychological factors” were prominent in English literature over the past five years. Co-occurrence and clustering analysis revealed dense internal connections among institutions, authors, and publications, but sparse external collaborations. (4) The study’s bias on visualization analysis may have introduced bias by excluding less influential papers. (5) Regarding research hotspots, domestic research emphasized the efficacy and exploration of analgesic methods, in contrast to international research that focused on pain mechanism subtyping and analgesic drug innovation. Future research is expected to trend towards traditional Chinese medicine for postoperative pain, multimodal analgesia, and the investigation and prevention of pain typing mechanisms.

Key words: total knee arthroplasty, TKA, postsurgical pain, analgesia, CiteSpace, data visualization, research status, tendency