Objective: To investigate the advances and trends of heat shock proteins (HSP) in ophthalmology published from 2003 to 2023. Methods: The Web of Science database was used to retrieve the literature on heat shock proteins in ophthalmology published from January 1, 2003 to December 26, 2023. Bibliometric methods and VOSviewer and CiteSpaces software were used to analyze and visualize data, including publication count, countries, organizations, journals, authors, keywords and subject categories. Results: A total of 1079 publications related to HSP in ophthalmology were included, and the overall number of publications was fluctuating. The United States (n =394) was the leading contributor among countries. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science (n =80) was the journal with the largest number of publications. The pathogenesis of glaucoma, the pathogenesis of cataract and the mechanism of ophthalmic diseases at the genetic level of HSP were identified as the research hotspots. Glaucoma, cholesterol, and molecular chaperones were identified as frontier research topics. Biochemistry & molecular biology, multidisciplinary materials science, and cell biology have the highest betweenness centrality values of 0.60, 0.28, and 0.26, respectively. Multidisciplinary chemistry (burst years: 2017 to 2023; strength = 6.3) was a subject involved in the research frontier of this field. Conclusion: Research on heat shock proteins in ophthalmology mainly focuses on revealing the genetic background of the diseases and exploring the molecular mechanisms and therapeutic applications in glaucoma and cataracts. The advance in the study on molecular mechanisms in this field depends on multidisciplinary collaboration.
