With the rising incidence of urinary stone disease, web searches for stone treatments are increasing. Google Trends (GT) data over a 10-year period and during the COVID-19 pandemic were used to investigate the trend variations for the most popular minimally invasive stone therapies based on time and region.
GT can create a line graph that shows how interest in various territories has risen or decreased over time. Search terms were generated for extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL), percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL), retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS), ureterorenoscopy (URS) and laparoscopic pyelolithotomy/ureterolithotomy. Using the "global" inquiry category, the data was included "worldwide" from 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2021. In recent years, Google and YouTube searches for total minimally invasive stone treatments have increased. RIRS, URS and PNL trends revealed a substantial rise in the regression analysis (p<0.05), but ESWL trends showed a significant reduction (p<0.05). RIRS was the main intervention with interest growing most over time. Web searches for stone treatments decreased in the first period of the COVID-19 pandemic. To a rising degree of involvement, patients and physicians from all over the world utilize the internet to search for minimally invasive stone operations. RIRS, URS, and PNL are becoming more popular in web trends and ESWL still has the highest trend despite the decline in popularity recently. The number of trustworthy web-based tools about stone treatments should be increased and patients and physicians should be directed to these sources.
Journal of endourology. 2022 Mar 29 [Epub ahead of print]
Serdar Madendere, Müslim Doğan Değer, Tevfik Aktoz
Çorlu State Hospital, Urology, Tekirdağ, Turkey; ., Trakya University Faculty of Medicine, 64058, Urology, Edirne, Turkey; ., Trakya University Faculty of Medicine, 64058, Urology, Edirne, Turkey; .
PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35345889