Introduction
Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) begins to be seen after the age of 40 years, and its incidence increases with age, reaching 80-90% among the population aged 70 to 80 years (1). Surgical treatment is applied in symptomatic BPH cases that do not benefit from medical treatment and/or develop complications. There are many surgical alternatives to surgically treat symptomatic BPH [open prostatectomy, Transurethral resection of the prostate (TUR-P), Transurethral enucleation of the prostate (TUEP), Holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP), etc.]. Among these surgical procedures, HoLEP has taken its place as a surgical treatment option of BPH due to its efficacy and safety in large prostates (2). It has been shown that full enucleation performed after HoLEP results in reduced possibility of repeat surgery, less bleeding, and decreased hospital stay due to the shorter duration of catheter use (3). For these reasons, HoLEP surgery has started to be preferred frequently, and its popularity is gradually increasing.
With the current advances in technologies and the widespread use of communication tools, people can now quickly access information on subjects in which they are interested. Video content providers allows patients to easily access information on various treatment methods, which can affect their treatment decisions. YouTube is one of the most popular video-sharing platforms, having more than 1 billion users that collectively watch more than 1 billion hours of videos every day (4,5). It is an ever-developing area where patients receive healthcare information. Unfortunately, information pollution caused by inaccurate information spreading through social media tools is a very important issue. Therefore, it is important to ensure the accuracy, reliability and understandability of online information obtained by patients concerning treatment methods. In previous studies, it has already been emphasized that there is a spread of false and/or biased information concerning urological conditions on YouTube (6,7). Video-sharing sites may be suitable for providing information on the surgical treatment of BPH. In particular, videos with animations and informative visual tools can be useful, and current technological developments increasing video quality can help viewers better understand the disease and treatment. However, it can be difficult for patients to distinguish the accuracy of the content of existing from the marketing promises of informing party.
To the best of our knowledge, there is no study in the literature evaluating HoLEP-specific surgical videos on YouTube. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the content, reliability and quality of the most relevant YouTube videos related to HoLEP surgery.