Sinus Surgery: Analysis of Videos Available Online

Abstract

Objectives YouTube is the second most visited website in the world and can be a useful resource for patients to gain insight into surgical procedures. A multitude of studies have evaluated the quality of otolaryngology-specific healthcare information available on the YouTube platform, but to our knowledge, the online content regarding functional endoscopic sinus surgery available on this site has not been systematically evaluated. Study Design Cross sectional study. Setting Online. Methods YouTube was searched using the keywords “sinus surgery.” Variables including video length, total number of views, authorship (academic, private practice physician, patient, or third party), objective (advertisement, informative, or patient perspective), inclusion of intra-operative footage, and discussion of balloon sinuplasty were recorded and analyzed by a single reviewer. Results Two-hundred twenty-two videos met inclusion criteria, with a median length of 4 minutes, and a median of 3349 views. The majority of videos were informative (n = 145, 65%), narrated (n = 151, 68%), and did not mention balloon sinuplasty (n = 189, 85%) nor contain intra-operative footage (n = 116, 52%). Private practice physicians were the most common authors (n = 113, 51%), followed by patients (n = 70, 32%), third parties (n = 28, 13%) and academics (n = 11, 5%). Conclusions Sinus surgery is one of the most common ambulatory procedures performed. Online resources such as YouTube can be useful for improving health literacy and patient comfort with medical topics such as functional endoscopic sinus surgery, but it is important for clinicians and patients to understand that there is a spectrum in the authorship, content, and quality of sinus surgery related videos posted online.