Short-Form Video as a Health Communication Medium in Vascular Surgery: A Narrative Review Using Varicose Veins as an Illustrative Case.

Short-form video has become a common route through which surgical patients first encounter health information and begin forming expectations before clinical consultation. Studies across different diseases and platforms have repeatedly reported variable accuracy, incomplete coverage, and inconsistent reliability in short-form health content. Much of this literature, however, remains descriptive, relying mainly on quality scores, uploader characteristics, and engagement metrics. This narrative review takes a broader view of short-form video as a health communication medium. Using varicose vein-related videos on TikTok and Bilibili as an illustrative anchoring case, we examine why similar quality problems continue to recur and why this matters for vascular surgery practice. The review focuses on 3 connected issues: the structural limitations of fragmented video in conveying complex medical information; the mismatch between engagement-driven visibility and scientific reliability; and the effects of these mechanisms on patients' preconsultation understanding, treatment expectations, and communication in vascular surgery clinics. Short-form videos may help raise awareness, especially for visible conditions such as varicose veins. At the same time, their brevity and visual emphasis often leave limited space for diagnostic reasoning, treatment indications, risk-benefit trade-offs, recurrence risk, and long-term management. Recommendation systems may further favor content that attracts attention over content that is accurate, better supported by evidence, or educationally useful. For vascular surgeons, short-form video should be viewed as an entry point to patient education, not as a substitute for clinical explanation. Surgeons should increasingly ask about patients' online information exposure, calibrate treatment expectations, and reconnect platform-derived beliefs with individualized assessment and shared decision-making.