Bringing Retracted Papers Into Focus

Article information

Clin Exp Otorhinolaryngol. 2015;8(1):81-81

Publication date (electronic) : 2015 February 03

doi : https://doi.org/10.3342/ceo.2015.8.1.81

Helmar Bornemann-Cimenti , Andreas Sandner-Kiesling

Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria.

Corresponding author: Andreas Sandner-Kiesling. Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 29, 8036 Graz, Austria. Tel: +43-316-385-81858, Fax: +43-316-385-14664, andreas.sandner@medunigraz.at

Received 2014 December 03; Revised 2015 January 26; Accepted 2015 January 26.

See the reply "In Reply: Bringing Retracted Papers Into Focus" on page 82.

To the editor:

In a recent issue of Clinical and Experimental Otorhinolaryngology, Kim et al. [1] presented an interesting study on the preoperative application of pregabalin in patients undergoing septoplasty. The authors should be congratulated to their interesting work, which showed benefits in reducing postoperative pain and analgesic requirements. Their results fits in an increasing body of evidence, where pregabalin has shown to effectively prevent postoperative pain [2], potentially by reducing postoperative hyperalgesia and allodynia [3,4].

The authors did a commendable job in designing and realizing the study. When preparing their paper, they overlooked that one of their references, a study by Reuben et al., was already retracted due to fraudulent data [5].

The problem of ongoing citation of retracted papers was previously reported [6]. Especially when using Embase in contrast to PubMed, authors have no information on whether a publication was rejected or not [7]. However, perpetuating fraudulent publications leads to a bias in the representation of the current literature. In consideration of the increasing number of retracted papers, authors should be encouraged to verify their sources. Beyond that, it would be desirable to incorporate a label in Embase on retracted papers.

Notes

No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

References

1. Kim JH, Seo MY, Hong SD, Lee J, Chung SK, Kim HY, et al. The efficacy of preemptive analgesia with pregabalin in septoplasty. Clin Exp Otorhinolaryngol 2014;6. 7(2):102–105. 24917905.

2. Mishriky BM, Waldron NH, Habib AS. Impact of pregabalin on acute and persistent postoperative pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Br J Anaesth 2015;1. 114(1):10–31. 25209095.

3. Bornemann-Cimenti H, Lederer AJ, Wejbora M, Michaeli K, Kern-Pirsch C, Archan S, et al. Preoperative pregabalin administration significantly reduces postoperative opioid consumption and mechanical hyperalgesia after transperitoneal nephrectomy. Br J Anaesth 2012;5. 108(5):845–849. 22362672.

4. Lederer AJ, Bornemann-Cimenti H, Wejbora M, Kern-Pirsch C, Michaeli K, Sandner-Kiesling A. Pregabalin and postoperative hyperalgesia: a review. Schmerz 2011;2. 25(1):12–18. 21181417.

5. Shafer SL. Notice of retraction. Anesth Analg 2009;4. 108(4):1350. 19299812.

6. Bornemann-Cimenti H, Sandner-Kiesling A. Avoiding perpetuating fraudulent publications in addendum to Sagit M et al: Efficacy of a single preoperative dose of pregabalin for postoperative pain after septoplasty. J Craniofac Surg 2014;25(2):717. 24621741.

7. Wright K, McDaid C. Reporting of article retractions in bibliographic databases and online journals. J Med Libr Assoc 2011;4. 99(2):164–167. 21464856.

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(open-access, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) :

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