The social media footprint of endoscopic spine surgery: a cross-sectional analysis of content on Twitter/X.

Abstract

Study design: Cross-sectional social media content analysis.

Purpose: Patients increasingly rely on social media for education and perspectives regarding surgical care. Given the growing interest in endoscopic spine surgery, there is a need to critically evaluate related content available on social media.

Overview of literature: While patient and surgeon engagement with spine surgery topics on social media has been explored, no previous study has specifically examined endoscopic spine surgery content on Twitter/X.

Methods: The Twitter/X website's user-facing search functionality was used to compile tweets containing hashtags related to endoscopic spine surgery. The search spanned from the website's inception to December 31, 2024. Tweets were categorized by authorship and location. Each tweet was independently analyzed by two reviewers to identify themes and contextual nature (educational vs. promotional).

Results: A total of 890 tweets from 199 accounts were analyzed. The majority of content (76.0%) originated from outside the United States. Medical doctors, doctors of osteopathy, and other healthcare providers authored 44.4% of the content. Patient-facing advertisements accounted for 24.5% of tweets. Approximately 22.1% of tweets contained content intended for healthcare professionals already familiar with endoscopic spine surgery, primarily highlighting conference/educational activities, research projects, or noteworthy cases.

Conclusions: A growing body of information related to endoscopic spine surgery is available on Twitter/X, though a large portion of this content consists of healthcare providers advertising to potential patients. Future research should prioritize identifying and analyzing patient perspectives on endoscopic spine surgery portrayed on social media platforms.