Objective  To analyze the regions, institutions, journals, authors, citation times and keywords of literatures related to ketogenic diet for epilepsy through CiteSpace, and to predict the latest trends in this field.

Methods  The core collection database collected in Web of Science from 2002 to August 13, 2022 was used as the literature source. CiteSpace 5.7. R2 was used for literature visualization analysis, and related visualization maps were drawn.

Results  A total of 2 193 literatures were included after screening. At present, the related research of ketogenic diet for epilepsy was on the rise rapidly. The United States was the main driver in this area, providing 34.38 per cent of publications; China ranked the fourth in terms of the number of publications. The most active institution was Johns Hopkins University, and the most frequently cited journal was Cited Journal. The most commonly cited articles were those published in Epilepsia Open. ERIC H KOSSOFF was the most prolific author and the most frequently co-cited. "Gut microbiome" "microbiome axis-gut brain axis" "modified Atkins diet" and "gene mutation" were the research frontiers of ketogenic diet treatment of epilepsy. The research focus had gradually expanded from the local lesion site to other sites, such as the transformation from "brain" to "microbial axis-enterobrain axis", showing the characteristics of multidisciplinary development.

Conclusion  The combined application of ketogenic diet and intestinal microbiome in epilepsy treatment is an inevitable trend in the future.