Beverly Hills Hernia Center, Beverly Hills, CA, USA.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Am Surg. 2020 Oct;86(10):1351-1357. doi: 10.1177/0003134820964459. Epub 2020 Oct 25.
Social media can influence public perception in health care. By 2016, social media discussion against the use of transvaginal mesh influenced changes in Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations. We propose that the fate of hernia mesh will follow that of transvaginal mesh. Thus, we compare the trend of social media discussion of hernia and transvaginal mesh. Posts on Twitter and public Facebook groups were tracked for keywords "hernia," "hernia mesh," and "pelvic/vaginal mesh." Posts were categorized based on sentiment. On Facebook, 16 public groups with 14 526 members expressed negative sentiments in 95% of their 750 daily posts. Meanwhile, of the 1.1 million tweets on Twitter, those about hernia mesh were more negative (36.5%) than those about pelvic/vaginal mesh (29.2%). Three of the 5 top tweeters about hernia mesh and pelvic/vaginal mesh were linked to law firms involved in mesh-based lawsuits. The negative sentiments and steering of social media discussion by lawyers may directly affect surgical care. As surgeons, we may adapt our informed consent to acknowledge our patients' apprehensions about mesh. We may also be more involved in social media discussions ourselves. Meanwhile, we await FDA decisions in the regulation and availability of hernia mesh.
社交媒体可以影响医疗保健领域的公众认知。到 2016 年，社交媒体上对阴道网片使用的反对意见影响了美国食品和药物管理局（FDA）的监管规定发生变化。我们推测疝修补网片的命运也将效仿阴道网片。因此，我们比较了社交媒体上关于疝和阴道网片讨论的趋势。在 Twitter 和 Facebook 公共群组上跟踪了有关“疝”、“疝修补网片”和“盆腔/阴道网片”的关键词的帖子。根据情绪对帖子进行了分类。在 Facebook 上，16 个拥有 14526 名成员的公共群组在其每天 750 条帖子中 95%的内容表达了负面情绪。相比之下，在 Twitter 上的 110 万条推文中，疝修补网片的推文比盆腔/阴道网片的推文更负面（36.5%对 29.2%）。在关于疝和阴道网片的 5 位热门推主中，有 3 位与参与网片诉讼的律师事务所有关联。律师们的负面情绪和对社交媒体讨论的引导可能会直接影响手术护理。作为外科医生，我们可能会调整我们的知情同意书，以承认我们的患者对网片的担忧。我们也可能更多地参与社交媒体讨论。同时，我们等待 FDA 对疝修补网片的监管和供应做出决定。
