Objective To analyze the situation and hot trend of frailty syndrome in the elderly in China and abroad, in order to provide reference for clinical guidelines and scientific research for nursing staff. Methods From January 1st, 1990 to July 1st, 2018, the related studies on elderly frailty syndromes included by Web of Science were searched, bibliometric analysis method was adopted to count and analyze the results. Results From 1990 to 2018, there were totally 988 elderly frailty syndrome related articles and the number of publication showed an increasing trend each year; a total of 65 countries (or regions) participated in the studies and the USA was at the leading position in terms of the level of study and organization distribution; there was no core journal group formed in the nursing discipline on elderly frailty study. From 1990 to 2013, the research hotspots focused on the frailty theory model, epidemiological characteristics, and correlation with chronic diseases and negative outcomes, etc; from 2014 to 2018, based on the studies at the earlier period, the evaluation and intervention were focused on one hand, on the other hand, life quality of the frailty patients and their function status studies and so on were focused; in the future, multidisciplinary team cooperation and elderly comprehensive evaluation would be the trend of studies. Conclusions The research on elderly frailty syndrome in China has just started. It is urgent to establish a systematic cooperation mechanism between colleges and universities, obtain the support of professional research institutions and project funding, form a centralized group of nursing journals as soon as possible, and develop disciplinary team cooperation to improve the quality of life of elderly patients. Key words: Aged; Bibliometric analysis; Nursing care; Frailty syndrome