Original Article
An Evaluation of Information Available on the Internet Regarding Minimally Invasive Hip Arthroplasty

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arth.2005.04.019Get rights and content

Abstract

The Internet is a popular source of information regarding health care especially when seeking advice on new and less invasive surgical techniques. We evaluated 150 Web sites (3 search engines) for authorship and quality of information regarding minimally invasive hip arthroplasty. The results revealed that 45% were authored by a hospital/university, 26% were news stories, 25% were private medical groups, and 6% were orthopedic industry Web sites. Forty-five percent offered the opportunity to make an appointment, 41% described the surgical technique, and only 15% explained eligibility. Thirteen percent described the risks, whereas 9% made reference to peer-reviewed publications. More than 91% made specific claims regarding the advantages of minimally invasive surgery. Our study suggests the information on the Internet regarding minimally invasive total hip arthroplasty is misleading and of poor quality.

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Materials and Methods

We used the search term Minimally invasive hip replacement in 3 search engines (Google, MSN, and Yahoo!). Beginning with Yahoo!, followed by Google and, finally, MSN, we identified the total number of Web sites using these search terms. The top 50 matches from each site, excluding any identical Web sites within and between search engines, were evaluated for authorship and content.

Results

As of November 3, 2004, the total number of Web sites per search engine regarding minimally invasive hip arthroplasty was 24 300, 36 600, and 7224 for Google, Yahoo!, and MSN, respectively. The results of the detailed evaluation of the top 50 Web sites per search engine (excluding duplicates) are described in Table 1, Table 2, Table 3, Table 4. Forty-five percent (67/150) were sponsored by a hospital or university, 26% (38/150) were associated with a private medical group, 24% (36/150) were news

Discussion

The results of this study indicate that the information available on the Internet regarding minimally invasive THA is inaccurate and misleading. The existing peer-reviewed literature related to minimally invasive THA is inconclusive regarding the benefits of these techniques over traditional techniques 1, 5, 6, 15, 16, with no level 1 evidence currently available. Most claims made on the Web sites we reviewed have not been substantiated by the existing peer-reviewed literature. Although most

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