Three-Dimensional Printing and Tissue Engineering in Auricular Reconstruction: Global Trends, Research Frontiers, and a Translational Evidence Map

Three-dimensional (3D) printing and tissue engineering offer patient-specific strategies for auricular reconstruction, but bibliometric structure alone cannot establish technical maturity or clinical value. We combined bibliometric mapping of English-language Articles and Reviews in the Web of Science Core Collection (2014–2025) with a translational evidence map. The locked corpus comprised 169 publications (143 Articles and 26 Reviews) and 4291 citations at the 12 June 2026 snapshot. Annual output, countries, institutions, authors, journals, highly cited records, author-keyword co-occurrence, and temporal terminology were analyzed. Citation-age sensitivity used citations per publication-year (CPY), year-normalized scores, and within-year percentiles. Record-level coding evaluated technical routes, materials, cell systems, construct scale, evidence stage, scientific endpoints, reporting completeness, and barriers. Among Articles, 40 (28.0%) were in vitro only, 41 (28.7%) reached small-animal testing, four (2.8%) reached large-animal testing, and nine (6.3%) reported human evidence; only one was comparative clinical research. Chondrogenesis or extracellular-matrix outcomes were reported in 84 Articles (58.7%), whereas vascularization, clinical/aesthetic outcomes, and long-term safety/adverse events were each reported in ≤6.3%. The field is expanding internationally but remains predominantly preclinical; progress requires standardized reporting, native-cartilage comparators, long-term shape and safety assessment, and larger-animal and comparative clinical validation.