New learning area in laparoscopic gastrectomy for gastric cancer: YouTube® or WebSurg®?

Laparoscopic gastrectomy cannot be performed routinely in many centres, because there is still no standardisation in the centres where it is performed, and therefore, new learning areas are needed for residents working in these centres for surgical training. These areas are various courses, video training sets and video platforms watched over the internet. The most frequently used platforms are YouTube^® and WebSurg^®. Our aim is to compare these two online video platforms in terms of laparoscopic gastrectomy and to evaluate the contribution of video platforms to surgical training and whether they have sufficient technical quality.

We made a search on YouTube^® and WebSurg^® using the keyword 'laparoscopic gastrectomy' on 13 November 2020. A total of 143 videos were analysed, 111 of them on YouTube^® and 32 on WebSurg^®. All these videos were examined by two surgical oncologists experienced in laparoscopic gastrectomy and using laparoscopy in their daily practice.

The average video duration was 53.54 min in the YouTube^® group and 18.20 min in the WebSurg^® group, and this difference was found to be statistically significant between the two groups. According to the LGSS based on surgical procedures, the average score of WebSurg^® videos was 10.37 and of YouTube^® videos was 5.55, and there was a statistically significant difference between the two groups.

Today, video platforms have started to play a major role in surgical training. Of these platforms examined, WebSurg^® is superior to YouTube^® in terms of education and quality, but these platforms still have some deficiencies and need regulation.