Assessment of the Educational Value and Technical Competence of Surgical Incision Repair Videos Shared on YouTube

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the educational quality, reliability, and technical accuracy of surgical incision repair videos on YouTube and to investigate the influence of video source, country of origin, and content characteristics on overall quality scores. Materials and Methods: All videos were independently assessed by two researchers using four validated scoring systems: the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) criteria, modified DISCERN, Global Quality score (GQS), and objective structured assessment of technical skills (OSATS). Video popularity was calculated using the video power index. Statistical analyses were conducted using the Mann-Whitney U test, Spearman’s correlation analysis, and ROC curve evaluation, with statistical significance set at p<0.05. Results: According to the DISCERN classification, 48.5% of videos were of very poor quality, while 12.1% were categorized as good quality. Institutional videos achieved significantly higher scores across all evaluation systems compared with individual uploads (p<0.05). Videos with spoken narration received higher scores for educational and technical quality than silent videos. Content originating from the United States had significantly higher JAMA, GQS, and DISCERN scores than content from other countries (p<0.05). Positive correlations were identified between OSATS scores and JAMA (r=0.315), GQS (r=0.782), and DISCERN (r=0.702) scores. Conclusion: The overall educational quality of YouTube videos on surgical incision repair was moderate. Institutional and narrated videos yielded significantly higher quality scores, underscoring the importance of academic oversight and structured content development. Although YouTube represents a valuable supplementary tool for surgical education, standardization and scientific regulation are essential to ensure educational reliability.