Instagram: A platform for caudal epidural injection?

Aim: Caudal epidural injection (CEI) is a widely used procedure in pediatric anesthesia for perioperative pain and in adults for chronic radicular pain. Social media platforms, including Instagram, are being increasingly utilized for the dissemination of information in various fields, including medicine. The aim of this study was to evaluate the information content and sources of CEI on Instagram.Method: This study presents an analysis of Instagram contents containing the keywords #caudalepiduralinjection, #caudalepidural, #caudalepiduralblock, #caudalinjection, and #caudalblock on May 1, 2023. The results were classified into four groups based on the source: posts generated by physicians, organizations, patients, or unspecified sources. The posts were further classified into two categories: educational or experience. User influence was also assessed based on the number of followers and posts.Results: A total of 204 posts were assessed. 72 different accounts were identified and the distribution of these accounts is as follows: physicians accounted for 29.16% (n=21), patients accounted for 51.38% (n=37), medical organizations accounted for 11.11% (n=8), and the remaining 8.33% (n=6) were not otherwise specified. Among the posts, 92 (45.09%) were posted by the patients, 71 (34.80%) were posted by physicians, 25 (12.25%) by medical organizations, and 16 (7.84%) were not specified. There was a significant difference in the number of posts created by patients versus physicians (p=0.036). Furthermore, there was a significant difference in the number of followers between physicians and all other groups analyzed. There were no posts regarding the use of CEI in pediatric anesthesia when searching for posts on CEIs.Conclusions: When searching for posts related to CEIs, it is more likely to encounter posts authored by patients, thus resulting in the educational content created by physicians being overshadowed and buried among numerous other posts. We suggest posting educational medical content with the hashtag #MedEd in an attempt to make educational content more easily accessible. These findings highlight the importance of raising awareness about CEIs on Instagram. Pain medicine societies and specialists should actively contribute by sharing credible posts on CEIs.