Laparoscopic myomectomy videos on WebSurg and YouTube: does peer review process make a difference?

This study aimed to evaluate the quality of laparoscopic myomectomy videos on YouTube and WebSurg.

We searched using the keyword "laparoscopic myomectomy" on WebSurg and selected surgical interventions in the gynecology section. Eleven videos on WebSurg were enrolled. We selected the 22 most-relevant videos on YouTube to create a comparison group, with a ratio of 1:2. Sound in videos, number of subscribers, views, likes, and comments, number of days since videos were uploaded and durations of videos were recorded. View/day, like/view, like/subscriber, and view/subscriber ratios were calculated. The videos were evaluated with usefulness score (US), global quality scoring (GQS), modified discern score (mDS) and laparoscopic surgery video educational guidelines (LAP-VEGaS).

The view/day ratio was lower in WebSurg compared to YouTube [1.3 (1.9) vs. 7.5 (30.6), respectively; p=0.039]. No difference was found between WebSurg and YouTube in terms of US, GQS and mDS. On LAP-VEGaS assessment, WebSurg was found to be superior to YouTube in terms of intraoperative findings [2 (1-2) vs. 1 (0-2), p=0.001], additional materials [1 (0-2) vs. 1 (0-1), p=0.041], audio/written commentary [2 (2-2) vs. 2 (0-2), p=0.037], image quality [2 (2-2) vs. 2 (0-2), p=0.023], questions and total score [12 (11-13) vs. 10.5 (4-13), p=0.006]. The proportion of high-quality video was higher in WebSurg compared to YouTube, when the cut-off value of total score of 11 or 12 was used as 10 (100%) vs. 10 (50%), p=0.011 and 9 (90%) vs. 5 (25%), p=0.001, respectively.

WebSurg was better compared to YouTube in terms of quality of laparoscopic myomectomy videos.