Perioperative Caregiver Education Using Animated Videos for Pediatric Tonsillectomy: A Randomized Controlled Study

Information technologies may enhance our traditional perioperative teaching by providing more comprehensive information beyond the clinical visit. This quality improvement study aims to assess whether the implementation of an animated surgical video improves caregiver satisfaction for children undergoing adenotonsillectomy.

Prospective, single-blinded randomized-controlled trial was conducted between March 1 and October 1, 2023.

Tertiary care academic pediatric hospital.

A consecutive series of patients and their primary caregivers were randomly allocated to either the control arm, in which they received traditional patient education, or the intervention arm, additionally gaining access to the multimedia platform summarizing the surgical pathway for an adenotonsillectomy. Outcomes included caregiver satisfaction using the Care Transitions Measures (CTM-15) questionnaire, resource utilization, and qualitative feedback analysis.

A total of 100 patients (50 in each arm) completed the postintervention questionnaires (mean age 5.2 ± 3.0 years, female:male: 9:10) after undergoing an adenoidectomy (N = 28), tonsillectomy (N = 3), or both (N = 69). CTM-15 scores were high in both groups, with no observed difference between the intervention and control groups 85.82 12.91 versus 85.41 16.21, respectively, P = .89). Unplanned postoperative visits were comparable between groups, however, caregivers in the intervention arm were less likely to call a medical professional on more than 1 occasion postoperatively (16% vs 2%, P = .042). Most caregivers within the intervention arm agreed that the animated platform was interesting (94%) and useful (98%).

Animated surgical guides are an alluring complementary modality to standard clinician-led teaching and may help reduce perioperative resource utilization.