Abstract

Objective: Kidney stones are one of the most common disorders of the urinary tract. With increasing awareness, a larger proportion of patients are seeking medical knowledge from the Internet. In present study, the features, reliability and efficacy of videos on YouTube related to the treatment of kidney stones were evaluated.

Material and methods: In December 2014, YouTube was searched using keywords “nephrolithiasis”; “renal calculi”; “renal stones”; and “kidney stones” for videos uploaded containing relevant information about the disease. Only videos in Turkish were included in the study. Two physician viewers watched each video and classified them as useful, partially useful and useless according to European Association of Urology (EAU) Guidelines. The source, length, number of views, number of favourable opinions, and days since uploaded date of the all videos were evaluated.

Results: A total of 600 videos were analysed The median length of videos was 6.7±10.4 (median: 3, IQR: 0.03-58) minutes . Each video was viewed at an average of 2368 (min: 11, max: 97133) times. Most of the videos (32.8%) were created by academicians and physicians. Nearly half (47.4%) of the videos were uploaded in 2014. The majority of the videos (62.5%) contained information for treatment. Percutaneous nephrolithotomy and ureterorenoscopy were the most common treatment modalities (32.8% and 28.0%, respectively ) in these videos. A statistically significant difference was not detected between view numbers and source of videos (p=0.87). However, there was a statistically significant difference between usefulness to the viewers and source of videos. Hospital -based videos were detected to be more useful (p=0.000).

Conclusion: As a result, videos that would be prepared in internet environment by professional individuals or organizations in a way which would attract attention and be easily comprehended  by the public could contribute to the knowledge  and education of our society about the stone disease which is commonly seen in our country.