gms | German Medical Science

Background: The purpose of this study was to analyze the educational quality of laparoscopic fundoplication (LF) videos accessible on YouTube, one of the most important sources of internet-based medical information.

Materials and methods: The keywords „laparoscopic fundplication“ and „laparoscopic gastroesophageal antireflux surgery" were used to search on YouTube. Of the 673 results, 305 videos (45.3%) were topic relevant. N=234 videos (76.7%) were excluded (no audio n=201, no surgery n=19, no video, only slides n=13, speech diffult to understand n=1). N=71 videos were included and evaluated by an arbitrary score system for video quality in regard to educational quality for LF. Correlation analysis was performed.

Results: Analyzed by video quality, 24 (33.8%) were evaluated as „good“, 28 (39.4%) were „moderate“, and 19 (26.8%) were „poor“. There were no differences in length, views per day or number of likes, dislikes, and origin. Analyzed by source, 34 (47.9%) were uploaded by hospitals, 34 (47.9%) by academic institutions and 3 (4.2%) by commercial institutions. The mean video quality score were similar between the different uploading origins (p=0.254) and had no correlation with views per day or number of likes.

Conclusion: A large number of videos on LF, applicable for educational purposes, is accessible YouTube. However, the contentual video quality varies strongly. This discrepancy in video quality cannot be recognized by viewers using the onsite data, such as number of likes and dislikes. Therefeore, an active filtering process is necessary and more higher quality videos need to be uploaded.