Tremendous progress has been made in the field of lateral lymph nodes (LLNs) in rectal cancer, but no bibliometric analysis in this field has been carried out and published. To reveal the current status and trends in LLNs in rectal cancer, this bibliometric analysis was performed. Cooperation network, co-citation and keyword co-occurrence analyses were conducted. Annual publication, cooperation relationships among authors, institutions and countries, co-cited journal, co-cited author, co-cited reference and keywords were the main outcomes. A total of 345 studies were included in this bibliometric analysis. The number of articles published in this field has been increasing year by year. The authors, institutions and countries worked closely together in this field. Japan has the largest number of published articles, accounting for 51.59% of the total publications.International Journal of Colorectal Disease(30 papers, 8.70%) published the most papers in this field. The JCOG0212 trial was the most cited article. Preoperative chemoradiotherapy, multicenter, lateral lymph node dissection (LLND) and metastasis are recent hot keywords, and LLND had the highest burst strength. In conclusion, this bibliometric analysis found that Japanese institutions and authors dominated the field of LLNs in rectal cancer. The JCOG0212 trial was the most influential article, which had a significant impact on the development of guidelines. LLND is a hotspot in this field with the highest burst strength. Further prospective studies are needed in this field.