What Are Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Knee Surgeons Watching? Exploring Trends in Online Surgical Technique Videos on the VuMedi Education Platform.

Abstract

Video-based education platforms are reshaping the landscape for surgical education. The purpose of this study was to evaluate trends in orthopaedic sports medicine knee surgery videos on VuMedi, a leading healthcare video-education platform, aiming to identify and discern trends and common attributes and shared by popular educational content. Common categories in orthopaedic sports surgery of the knee were shortlisted to include anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction/pair, extensor mechanism reconstruction/repair, malalignment/osteotomy, medial collateral ligament reconstruction/repair, meniscus repair, meniscus transplant, osteochondral or cartilage defect, osteochondritis dissecans, patellofemoral instability, posterior cruciate ligament, and posterolateral corner injury. Within each category, top 20 most-viewed videos were identified, and metrics were recorded, including date, institution, authorship, topic, view count, and location of origin. Among 207 included videos, ACL reconstruction (total 469,573 views, mean 26,087 [5,887 to 211,924]), meniscal repair (total 186,842 views, mean 10,380 [4,260 to 28,360]), and patellofemoral instability (total 163,031 views, mean 8,152 [2,675 to 20,126]) were the most watched categories. The top 10 most popular videos were produced in the 2008 to 2011 time frame, and 6 of 10 were related to ACL reconstruction. Across all topics, the most commonly viewed videos originated from academic institutions across North America (45.4%), followed by commercial/industry entities (38.7%) and independent institutions/surgeons (15.9%). ACL reconstruction, meniscal repair, and patellofemoral instability emerged as the most-viewed categories likely reflecting the prevalence of ACL tears and ACL reconstruction in clinical practice. Perceived reputation of producers may drive popularity of certain surgical videos, as North American academic institutions are the predominant contributors of the most popular videos.