Is YouTube Reliable to Teach Laparoscopic Gastric Bypass?

ABSTRACT

AIM:  The increasing prevalence of obesity has led to the popularity of bariatric surgery. Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (LRYGB) is one of the most complex methods in bariatric surgery. The main steps of LRYGB were determined in the Delphi Consensus. This study investigated the instructiveness and reliability of YouTube videos about LRYGB based on the Delphi Consensus. METHODS: In February 2024, three different searches were done in the search bar of the YouTube platform with the terms "laparoscopic gastric bypass" "laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass" and "laparoscopic RYGB". The first 50 videos in each search were evaluated. Animations, lectures, advertisements, non-English videos, and non-surgical videos (pre-surgery, post-surgery vlog, etc.) were excluded from the study. Delphi consensus steps were used to determine the reliability of the videos. The quality of the videos was measured using the Global Quality Scale (GQS) and modified DISCERN test. RESULTS: Forty-five videos were included in the evaluation. While 14 (31.1%) of these videos were classified as reliable, 31 (68.8%) were not found reliable. In reliable videos, video description, high definition (HD) resolution, GQS, and modified DISCERN were significantly higher (p-value 0.023, 0.004, 0.017, and 0.025 respectively). CONCLUSION: The rate of unreliable videos was higher on the YouTube platform. We conclude that YouTube alone is insufficient to learn LRYGB.