Researchers in China have lost a 2019 paper on sedation in people undergoing cardiac surgery after readers complained that the authors had failed to properly register the trial.
The paper, "Effect of Perioperative Administration of Dexmedetomidine on Delirium After Cardiac Surgery in Elderly Patients: a Double-Blinded, Multi-Center, Randomized Study," appeared in Clinical Interventions in Aging, a Dove Press title.
Last year, a commenter on PubPeer flagged the article, which has been cited 26 times, according to Clarivate Analytics' Web of Science:
1. The registration number provided by the author for the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR-IOR-17014122) seems to correspond to a different trial than the one described in the article: http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=24187 The registration describes a trial assessing the sedative effect of dexmedetomidine in laparoscopic colon operations rather than cardiac operations. Can the authors provide the correct registration number to show that the trial had been prospectively registered?
2. It is not entirely clear whether dexmedetomidine was administered for postoperative sedation after ICU admission. Did the patients in the DEX group continue to receive DEX postoperatively or did all patients receive the same PROP regimen for post-op sedation?
According to the retraction notice:
At the request of the authors, the Editor and Publisher of Clinical Interventions in Aging wish to retract the published article.
