Evaluation of the Educational Value, Reliability, and Quality of Vaginally-Assisted Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (v-NOTES) Videos on YouTube

Objective This study aims to evaluate the quality, reliability, and educational usability of vaginally-assisted natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (v-NOTES) videos on YouTube (Google Inc., Mountain View, CA). Methods This cross-sectional study analyzed 58 videos retrieved from a YouTube search using the keyword "v-NOTES." Quality and reliability assessments were conducted using the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) score (0 to four), the modified DISCERN score, the Global Quality Scale (GQS; 0 to five), and the Usefulness Score (US). Video popularity was evaluated using metrics such as viewer engagement, number of likes, like ratio, view count, view rate, and the Video Power Index (VPI). Results Of the evaluated surgical videos, 39 (67.2%) covered hysterectomy, while 19 (32.8%) featured other procedures. Doctors uploaded 44 (75.9%) of the videos, and medical companies shared 14 (24.1%). Animated content was present in 16 (27.6%) of videos, while 42 (72.4%) were non-animated. Among 58 analyzed videos, median quality scores were mDISCERN: three, JAMA: two, and GQS: two. Low-quality videos accounted for 43.1% based on the US. Median video characteristics were duration 330 seconds, views 1300, view rate 1.5, likes 23.5, VPI 0.3, and engagement score 1.6. No significant difference in quality and reliability was found between videos from doctors and medical companies. However, animated videos had higher median mDISCERN, JAMA, and GQS scores, with a significant difference in usefulness scores (p = 0.008). Conclusion This study assessed the quality, reliability, and educational value of YouTube videos on v-NOTES, revealing that despite the abundance of content, overall quality and reliability remain inadequate.