• The number of publications on AI in orthopedic imaging has steadily increased from 2015 to 2025, with a surge after 2017.
• The United States leads in citation impact and international collaboration, while China is a major contributor in terms of publication volume.
• Research hotspots include bone age assessment, automated segmentation, and deep learning applications in fracture detection and osteoarthritis diagnosis.
• Future directions emphasize intelligent segmentation, disease grading, and multimodal data fusion.