Spinal Resources on the Internet: An Extensive Review

Introduction:

Computer access has become more prevalent in our society. More patients are accessing the internet for medical information as well as to evaluate their physician. Approximately 15% of patients in our office have accessed information through the internet before their first office visit. It is important for the spine surgeon to be cognizant of the information accessed by patients with spinal disorders. The purpose of this study is to provide a extensive and ranked list of web sites relevant to spinal surgeons and their patients.

Methods:

A search was performed on the five most visited internet search engines (Yahoo, Go, Lycos, Excite, and AltaVista) using the keywords spine, spine surgery, discectomy, laminectomy, spinal fusion, back and neck pain, spinal cord injury. Only the results of the top fifty sites were reviewed for each keyword.

Results:

Over 1000 sites were reviewed. Sites were classified as commercial, medical, educational, user groups, and unrelated. These were then rated based on applicability, accuracy, ease of use, and appeal. The top twenty sites are further highlighted.

Conclusions:

The internet can be a useful educational resource for both the spine surgeon and the patient. Although there was no web page that provided comprehensive information on spinal disorders, a physician and patient can use the internet to keep informed of the advances in therapies and diagnosis. However, this can be extremely time consuming and it is imperative that the information is rated for use.