Shoulder and elbow surgery in China started relatively late. In recent years, with the continuous progress of medicine and related disciplines, scientific research has played an essential role in promoting the development of shoulder and elbow surgery. There is a lack of relevant research on the layout of the national scientific research project in the shoulder and elbow surgery field in China.

To analyze the layout of NSFC and the National Key R&D Program in the field of shoulder and elbow surgery, to summarize the development and trend of research in the field, and to provide a reference for future research directions.

All approved projects in the field of shoulder and elbow surgery were selected from the NSFC database. The number, composition, funding amount, institutional distribution, and keyword distribution were analyzed. All project guidelines in the shoulder and elbow surgery field were selected from the National Key R&D Program database.

From January 1993 to October 2022, 53 shoulder and elbow surgery projects were supported by the NSFC, mainly including general and youth science fund projects. The institutional distribution of the project is uneven, with a trend of aggregation. The project leader was mainly clinicians related to shoulder and elbow surgery. By means of keyword collinear cluster analysis, it is analyzed that the current research hotspots in the field of shoulder and elbow surgery mainly focus on the research on the mechanism of rotator cuff injury repair, the biomechanical research on the elbow joint and humeral fracture, the research on different substances and mechanisms of action that promote the healing of rotator cuff tendon-bone, the research on the mechanism related to fat infiltration of rotator cuff injury, and the research on the mechanism of inflammation and fibrosis of frozen shoulder. There is no independent shoulder and elbow surgery project in the National Key R&D Program.

The overall research on shoulder and elbow surgery in China is still at the initial stage. It is suggested to strengthen the research support in the shoulder and elbow surgery field from the top design and macro layout. Shoulder and elbow surgery research should be guided by clinical needs and promoted by interdisciplinary research in the future.