A bibliometric sweep of the 50 most-cited publications on GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) intersecting plastic and reconstructive surgery — drawn from Web of Science and spanning primarily 2023–2025 — identified three dominant research clusters: facial soft-tissue aging changes, perioperative safety management, and body contouring after pharmacologically induced weight loss. Geographic output was heavily US-centric, with no dominant institutional hubs, and keyword network analysis showed a clear conceptual migration from metabolic/bariatric framing toward aesthetic and procedural decision-making.
The finding matters less for what it discovers than for what it maps. GLP-1 RAs like semaglutide and tirzepatide are now mainstream obesity treatments, and their downstream effects on surgical candidacy are clinically urgent — rapid fat redistribution, potential "GLP-1 face" volume loss, altered wound healing, and aspiration risk from delayed gastric emptying all touch surgical practice directly. Yet this bibliometric snapshot confirms the field is still largely descriptive, built on case series, expert opinion, and observational data rather than prospective trials. For practicing surgeons, that gap carries real risk: preoperative GLP-1 cessation protocols, for instance, remain unstandardized. As a methodological review of a literature, this paper itself does not generate clinical evidence — it is Level V by design. Its value is directional, signaling where rigorous prospective research is most urgently needed before GLP-1-informed surgical guidelines can be responsibly issued.