Objective To understand the status and developmental trends of the research on anterolateral thigh flap. Methods The PubMed search was downloaded and the results were imported into the EndNote database, then the distribution was analysed by age, nation, language, periodical and frequency. Results There were 236 articles on anterolateral thigh flap in PubMed from 1996 to August 2006. The amount of articles multiply increased from 2002 to August 2006, at eighty percent of all. They were published in 8 languages, in 47 journals and from 9 countries.China and the USA are the major countries of the publication, with 77 articles each, which altogether took up 65.2% of the total. Words of a high frequency are as follows: free skip flap, island skin flap, ultrathin skin flap, perforating artery, and descending branch of lateral circumflex femoral artery, the frequency ratio of which is up to 97.46%.Conclusion The papers on anterolateral thigh flap are written mainly by China and USA; English is the main publishing language; The articles are chiefly published by Plast Reconstr Surg and other 8 journals. The research emphases of the anterolateral thigh flap are on free skip flap, perforating flap, ultrathin skin flap, and island flap. Angiography and 3D-reconstruction are the recent techniques for the research.