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. 2025 Mar 13;7(3):101112.
doi: 10.1016/j.asmr.2025.101112. eCollection 2025 Jun.

Internet Searches Related to Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury and Surgery Predominantly Relate to Management, Technical Details, and Recovery, but Quality of Websites Is Poor

John T Streepy  1 , Morgan L Angotti  1 , Johnathon R McCormick  1 , Colton C Mowers  1 , Braedon R Urie  1 , Alexander J Hodakowski  1 , Brian J Cole  1 , Nikhil N Verma  1 , Jorge Chahla  1
Affiliations

Internet Searches Related to Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury and Surgery Predominantly Relate to Management, Technical Details, and Recovery, but Quality of Websites Is Poor

John T Streepy et al. Arthrosc Sports Med Rehabil. .

Abstract

Purpose: To analyze the content of the most common "People Also Ask" questions regarding anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries and ACL surgery and to assess the scientific validity of the associated websites that provide answers.

Methods: Search terms were entered into Google regarding ACL tear and ACL surgery. The 300 most asked questions for each query were categorized with the Rothwell classification. The associated webpage information was collected from the "People Also Ask" section, and qualitative analysis was performed with the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark criteria.

Results: The Rothwell classification of questions for ACL tear/ACL surgery included fact (53%/54%), policy (37%/30%), and value (16%/10%). Questions related to technical details were significantly more common for the ACL tear group than ACL surgery (P = .015). Academic websites were significantly more common in the ACL tear group (P = .006), and commercial websites were significantly more common in the ACL surgery group (P = .045). The mean JAMA score for all the websites was 1.22 ± 1.1. Websites classified as journal had the highest mean JAMA scores (3.8 ± 0.4), with legal websites and medical practices websites having the lower JAMA scores (0 ± 0, 0.5 ± 0.7).

Conclusions: The most frequently asked questions on Google pertaining to ACL tear and ACL surgery are related to indications/management, technical details, and timeline of recovery. The quality of information provided by webpages, as measured by JAMA benchmark score, was poor (mean JAMA score 1.22). Academic and medical practice webpages were the most accessed for ACL tear and surgery, respectively.

Clinical relevance: It is important to continually analyze the validity and quality of information patients find on the Internet. The information gained from this study may help surgeons understand the type of information patients may find about ACL injuries and ACL surgeries.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors (J.T.S., M.L.A., J.R.M., C.C.M., B.R.U., A.J.H., B.J.C., N.N.V., J.C.) declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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