Background In recent years, the rising number of e-cigarette users among adolescents and the surging cases of lung injury related to e-cigarette use have attracted the attention of researchers in various fields.

Objective To identify the research hotspots and trends of e-cigarette or vaping product use associated lung injury (EVALI) worldwide from 2013 to 2022 by bibliometric and visual analysis.

Methods Web of Science Core Collection was selected to obtain literature related to EVALI from 2013 to 2022 across the world, statistics were calculated by country/region, institution, author, journal, cited literature, keyword, etc. CiteSpace 6.2.R1 was used for visual analysis to draw diagrams of publication trend, author cooperation network, co-citation clustering time distribution, and keyword cluster.

Results A total of 888 EVALI-related papers published between 2013 and 2022 were retrieved. The number of publications was gradually increased, with a significant increase in 2020 and a decrease from 2021, but the number of citations was increased year by year. The most active country was the United States (631 articles). European and American countries cooperated closely and the centrality was prominent. Among the publishing institutions, the University of California system topped the list with 103 articles. Rahman I (27 articles) published the most articles and had a high degree of centrality; Goniewicz M L was the most cited author; and the network analysis diagram showed relatively weak collaboration between authors. The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine was the journal with the highest number of publications (94 articles). The top 5 cited articles were all cited more than 300 times. The leading high-frequency keywords of EVALI-related studies were nicotine (149 times), exposure (118 times), and oxidative stress (80 times). The cluster of key nodes in the co-citation network and the clustering time distribution diagram indicated youth e-cigarette addiction received widespread attention from society. From the top 25 keywords with the strongest bursts, the focus of research on the pathogenesis of EVALI gradually shifted from the oxidative stress damage associated with e-cigarette vapor to the oxidative effect of flavoring chemicals in the process of lung injury. The current research interests in this field were mainly the mechanisms of various chemicals in e-cigarettes and the heating elements that led to damage to the lungs.

Conclusion EVALI is receiving continuous attention from researchers in government, medical institutions, and other organizations. A variety of e-cigarette ingredients such as flavoring chemicals may lead to varying degrees of cytotoxicity, inflammation, and lung damage. However, the pathophysiology of EVALI remains unclear. In the future, more Chinese scholars should be encouraged to participate in this field.