• Karamollah Toolabi, Reza Parsaei, Fezzeh Elyasinia, and Abbas Zamanian.
• Department of Surgery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
• Obes Surg. 2019 Sep 1; 29 (9): 2806-2813.

IntroductionMany surgery videos can be found in different social networks and video sharing websites. Watching surgeries performed by different surgical experts of various institutions can be an invaluable supplement to traditional methods of learning surgery. YouTube is a quite popular video sharing website, and many surgeons and trainees refer to it as a source of surgery videos. However, since its content is not peer-reviewed, there is a concern over reliability and educational value of its surgical videos. In this study, we aimed to investigate the reliability and educational value of laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) videos on YouTube.MethodsWe searched YouTube for videos of "Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy" on 20 July 2018. In order to assess videos, we evaluated ten key steps in laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy. The videos were reviewed by two experienced surgeons in the field of bariatric surgery to determine their reliability.ResultsA total of 74 videos were selected. After reviewing videos, 32 (43%) of them were considered as reliable. There was no relationship between reliability and views, likes, dislikes, resolution, and year of upload and affiliation of videos. Only 6 (8% of all) reliable videos showed operation setup and port placement and included voice commentary.ConclusionImportance of online media in the education of surgery cannot be overestimated. However, trainees are advised to search for peer-reviewed contents dedicated to education.

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