Introduction
The interesting article entitled “The reliability and quality of short videos as health information of guidance for lymphedema: a cross-sectional study” (), published in this journal reports on an extremely important subject related to treatment within health care, specifically in the areas of surgery and physiotherapy. Medical treatment must be based on scientific evidence, otherwise it cannot be considered a therapeutic option but rather an approach using guesswork, which is scientifically condemned.
Subsections
It is common on social media for people without sufficient knowledge of the scientific basis for treating lymphedema to ‘invent' a form of treatment and publish it in social networking sites. Laypeople, believing that it is a reliable form of treatment, begin to use it. Even non-specialist professionals have created methods without the slightest scientific basis or evidence and published them on social media platforms. This is the start of the destruction of the scientific foundations of medicine resulting in a loss of credibility.
Discussion
As a vascular surgeon and lymphology specialist with over 35 years of experience and extensive publications in the field, my team and I have observed that many online videos related to lymphology contain misinformation that could be detrimental to patients. This aligns with our daily clinical practice, where we see firsthand the negative consequences of inexperienced practitioners. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure the quality and accuracy of such videos.
When we analyze these videos, we need to have scientific knowledge of the content, so it is not the number of publications that is important, but the quality of the material. We must also examine how treatment techniques for these patients have advanced over the past century (–), evaluating the resulting improvements in patient outcomes and the innovative scientific approaches driving these changes. Because of improvements in scientific research, new techniques, new concepts and new materials are far superior in terms of results compared to the last century.
Specifically in lymphedema, we do not have favorable or contraindicating studies, in some other areas with other types of social platforms such as YouTube, Tick-Tok and in general the recommendation the videos and platforms should strengthen the management and professional supervision of related videos to accurately disseminate relevant knowledge to patients (, ). Just as we previously reported, the quality of the videos are role in health information dissemination expands, ensuring but must guarantee quality scientific and up-to-date content to better meet patients' needs for information.
In short, social media can do more harm to medicine than it contributes to the treatment of patients, and so warnings about these risks are of fundamental importance.
Statements
Author contributions
HP: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. JP: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.
Funding
The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for the research and/or publication of this article.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Generative AI statement
The author(s) declare that no Gen AI was used in the creation of this manuscript.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
References
1.
ZhouXMaGSuXLiXWangWXiaLet al. The reliability and quality of short videos as health information of guidance for lymphedema: a cross-sectional study. Front Public Health. (2025) 12:1472583. 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1472583
2.
Pereira de GodoyJMPereira de GodoyHJPereira de GodoyACGuerreiro GodoyMF. Lymphedema and elephantiasis of the lower limbs: normalization or nearly normalization. Cureus. (2023) 15:e37519. 10.7759/cureus.37519
3.
Pereira de GodoyJMPereira de GodoyLMPereira de GodoyHJGuerreiro GodoyMF. Reduction of arm lymphedema using manual lymphatic therapy (Godoy Method). Cureus. (2022) 14:e28374. 10.7759/cureus.28374
4.
de GodoyACPde GodoyJMPGuerreiro GodoyMF. Monotherapy for the treatment of lymphedema in children: a review. Curr Pediatr Rev. (2022) 18:179–81. 10.2174/1573396318666220225143226
5.
Pereira de GodoyJMGuerreiro GodoyMFPereira de GodoyHJDe Santi NetoD. Stimulation of synthesis and lysis of extracellular matrix proteins in fibrosis associated with lymphedema. Dermatopathology. (2021) 9:1–10. 10.3390/dermatopathology9010001
6.
WangJLiuBYangGLuoYLvNShuXet al. Assessing the content and quality of GI bleeding information on Bilibili, TikTok, and YouTube: a cross-sectional study. Sci Rep. (2025) 15:14856. 10.1038/s41598-025-98364-7
7.
ZhangJYuanJZhangDYangYWangCDouZet al. Short video platforms as sources of health information about cervical cancer: a content and quality analysis. PLoS ONE. (2024) 19:e0300180. 10.1371/journal.pone.0300180
Summary
Keywords
lymphedema, short videos, health, information, guidance
Citation
Pereira de Godoy HJ and Pereira de Godoy JM (2025) Commentary: The reliability and quality of short videos as health information of guidance for lymphedema: a cross-sectional study. Front. Public Health 13:1605011. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1605011
Received
29 April 2025
Accepted
09 June 2025
Published
30 June 2025
Volume
13 - 2025
Edited by
Yanwu Xu, Baidu, China
Reviewed by
Aboudou Habirou Kifouly, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Updates
Copyright
© 2025 Pereira de Godoy and Pereira de Godoy.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Jose Maria Pereira de Godoy godoyjmp@gmail.com
†ORCID: Henrique Jose Pereira de Godoy orcid.org/0000-0001-9463-7608
Jose Maria Pereira de Godoy orcid.org/0000-0001-5424-7787
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.