The quality and content of hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy information available to patients: An evaluation of North American hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy websites

Background: Patients commonly use the internet to obtain medical information. Patients in our outpa-tient setting frequently have incomplete or even incorrect information about hyperthermic intraperi-toneal chemotherapy that they have found on the internet. We aimed to assess the quality and content of Web-based information on hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy using validated and novel scoring systems.Methods: The keywords HIPEC and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy were entered into the most commonly used internet search engines (Google, Bing, and Yahoo). The first 10 websites from each search were analyzed. Website quality was assessed using the validated Journal of the American Medical Association benchmark criteria and DISCERN scoring systems. We created a novel hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy-specific score with surgeon experts in the field.Results: Eighteen unique websites were identified. The majority (78%) were from academic institutions. The mean total DISCERN score for all websites was 41.8 & PLUSMN; 8.4 (maximum possible points = 75). The mean Journal of the American Medical Association and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy-specific scores were 1.72 & PLUSMN; 1.13 (maximum possible score = 4) and 11.5 & PLUSMN; 4.5 (maximum possible score = 31), respectively. The lowest Journal of the American Medical Association scores were in the category of authorship. In total, 78% of websites omitted author details; 83% and 78% included the temperature and duration of hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy, respectively. Only 39% of websites mentioned complications of hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy. Conclusion: Web-based information on hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy is of variable con-tent and quality. None of the websites achieved maximum scores using any of the scoring tools. Less than half of the websites provided any information on possible complications of the procedure. These findings should be highlighted to patients using the internet to obtain information about hyperthermic intra-peritoneal chemotherapy.& COPY; 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study aimed to assess the quality and content of web-based information on hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC). The findings showed that the quality and content of information on HIPEC available online are variable, with none of the websites achieving maximum scores using the scoring tools. Less than half of the websites provided any information on possible complications of the procedure.