Last summer British researchers provoked concern when they published a paper raising the possibility that by following an established guideline UK doctors may have caused as many as 10,000 deaths each year. Now they have gone a step further and published an estimate that the same guideline may have led to the deaths of as many as 800,00 people in Europe over the last five years. The finding, they write, “is so large that the only context in the last 50 years comes from the largest scale professional failures in the political sphere.” The 800,000 deaths are comparable in size to the worst cases of genocide and mass murder in recent history.
In their new article published in the European Heart Journal, Graham Cole and Darrel Francis continue to explore the extent and implications of the damage caused by the Don Poldermans research misconduct case….
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Hi
Great post.
I suspect the story is incorrect though. Some fairly basic calculations suggest that in Europe recently there will have been about 720 000 deaths over the past 5 years related to surgery. Beta-blockers will have not been relevant in the vast majority of cases. Therefore the peri-operative deaths attributable to beta-blockers will have been only a fraction of this. Still a high number, but not 800 000.
Hope I have my maths right!
Mark
10 595 000 operation in 2012/13 (England)
http://www.nhsconfed.org/priorities/political-engagement/Pages/NHS-statistics.aspx
Peri-operative mortality 1 095/1 000 000
http://press.thelancet.com/anaesthetic.pdf
Total deaths related to surgery / annum
11 602
Total deaths over 5 years
58 008
England population 2012
59 493 700
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ldll3awsdv0f69q/Screenshot%202014-01-27%2020.21.13.png
Europe population 2012
740 000 000
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/European_population_compared_with_world_population
Estimated operations per annum 131 783 701
Total deaths related to surgery per annum 144 303
Total deaths related to surgery over 5 years 721516
The originla article seems to have been retracted