Background The wide reach and unique short audiovisual nature of TikTok make it a potential modality for disseminating information about orthopaedic surgery to both patients and medical professionals. However, only a few recent studies have assessed the purpose and creators of orthopaedic surgery content on TikTok. Methods The top 100 most-liked TikTok videos about orthopaedic surgery topics were included for analysis. Data reflecting video and creator account characteristics were collected. Video validity was determined by three reviewers according to the DISCERN criteria and Kruskal-Wallis H tests were performed to correlate validity to creator and video type. Results The majority of videos were created by orthopaedic surgeons (n=57/100) and for entertainment purposes (n=82/100). Orthopaedic surgeons had the highest DISCERN score (34.7) and greater video reliability compared to all other creator types (H = 59.0-67.1, all p<0.001). Videos made for educational and procedural purposes had the highest DISCERN scores (38.9 and 40.5, respectively) while entertainment videos had lower reliability (H=-56.7 to -113.5, all p<0.05). Conclusion The most popular orthopaedic surgery-related videos on the TikTok platform are primarily being created by orthopaedic surgeons for entertainment purposes. Less frequently were videos made to educate, describe procedures, and explain the lifestyle of an orthopaedic surgeon. Potential applications of utilizing the platform by orthopaedic surgeons include case or research discussions, educational videos on different pathologies, recruitment of prospective students to the field, and entertainment highlighting a day in the life of an orthopaedic surgeon.
Tupper et al. (Sat,) studied this question.