Abstract:Objective To explore the research status, hot spots and frontier trends of acupuncture treatment of Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and summarize the research direction and knowledge structure in this field. Methods The literature on acupuncture for RA from 2013-2022 was searched in China Knowledge Network (CNKI) and Web of Science, and visualized and analyzed by using CiteSpace software and VOSviewer software as well as drawing relevant maps on authors, research institutions and keywords. Results A total of 766 eligible CNKI papers and 178 WOS papers were included, and the number of publications generally showed an upward trend with the growth of time; the connection between the author groups of publications was not strong, and the national cooperation was centered on China, but the cooperation between countries and institutions was not close.Keyword analysis shows that the hotspot of domestic research in recent years is the mechanism of acupuncture for RA treatment, and the hotspot of foreign research in recent years is clinical observation and efficacy assessment. Conclusion The treatment of RA by acupuncture is multi-target and multi-pathway, and in future research, new research perspectives such as metabolomics, mechanism research, key pathways and related metabolic networks in the treatment of RA by acupuncture should be actively explored to provide more reference basis for clinical treatment of RA.