Assessing the educational value and content of YouTube videos for ultrasound-guided subclavian vein catheterization

The European Society of Anaesthesiology (ESA) published a guideline regarding continuous ultrasound guidance for central venous catheters in 2020. YouTube has been a popular educational platform since its inception. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the adequacy of videos on ultrasound-guided subclavian vein catheterization posted on YouTube based on this guideline.

YouTube was scanned using the keywords associated with ultrasound-guided subclavian vein catheterization and 46 of the 106 most-watched videos were included in the study. The videos were divided into three groups, as individual, manufacturer, and academic according to their sources, and were evaluated as poor, satisfactory, and good in terms of the overall content. The videos were then evaluated based on ESA's six-title guide for more specific informational content.

A total of 46 videos were reviewed and 52.2% (n = 24) were found to be prepared by individuals. Among the videos, the rate of videos describing only venipuncture (poor) was 23.9% (n = 11), 73.9% (n = 34) of videos described the verification of the guidewire location with venipuncture, and 2.2% of videos described all the recommendations suggested by the guide (n = 1). At the end of the catheterization procedure, 4.3% (n = 2) stated that the catheter location should be confirmed by using ultrasound, 15.2% (n = 7) recommended chest-X-ray, and 80.4% (n = 37) did not suggest any.

Manufacturer and academic videos can be watched due to their high-quality scores, but it may be practical to prepare training videos with guidelines both for educators and students to have global access to the renewed guideline information.