In July of 2017, Mohamed Rezk, of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Menoufia University in Egypt, submitted a manuscript to the journal Anesthesia with a colleague.  The manuscript, “Analgesic and antiemetic effect of Intraperitoneal magnesium sulfate in laparoscopic salpingectomy: a randomized controlled trial,” caught the attention of John Carlisle, an editor at the … Continue reading How journal editors kept questionable data about women’s health out of the literature years before retractions

Three years ago, we wrote that the Japanese Society of Anesthesiologists had in 2017 asked several journals to retract a total of nine papers by Yuhji Saitoh, formerly of Yachiyo Medical Center and Tokyo Women’s Medical University.  According to the society, Saitoh had committed ethics violations in 10 articles, three of which had already been … Continue reading Four years after anesthesiology society’s request, four articles remain unretracted

Last month, Retraction Watch reported on the case of Hironobo Ueshima, an anesthesiology researcher found guilty of misconduct in more than 140 papers. A journal editor, John Loadsman, was the first to suspect there were issues in Ueshima’s work. But this was hardly the first time Loadsman had been the canary in the coal mine … Continue reading Meet a sleuth whose work has led to the identification of hundreds of fraudulent papers

A Japanese anesthesiologist has been found guilty of fabricating data and other misconduct in 142 articles and other publications, leading to his termination and the sanction of several of his co-authors.  Showa University says its investigation into Hironobu Ueshima, the existence of which we first reported on last June, found that the prolific researcher had … Continue reading Anesthesiology researcher guilty of misconduct in more than 140 papers: Investigation

A drug maker has blinked in a lawsuit against the leading anesthesiology society in the United States, along with several anesthesiology researchers, who it claims libeled the company in a series of articles and other materials critical of its main product.  As we reported last month, Pacira Biosciences, which makes the local anesthetic agent Exparel, … Continue reading Drug company withdraws court motion requesting retraction of papers critical of its painkiller

A group of anesthesiology researchers in China have lost their 2020 paper on nerve blocks during lung surgery after finding that the work contained “too many” errors to stand. But after hearing from the top editor of the journal, it’s pretty clear “too many errors” was a euphemism for even worse problems. The article, “Opioid-sparing … Continue reading “We didn’t want to hurt them. We are polite”: When a retraction notice pulls punches

An anesthesia journal has retracted a 2020 paper by a group from China, Turkey and the United States after a post-publication review discovered issues with the analysis.  According to the notice, in the European Journal of Anaesthesiology:   Following a statistical review, the Publish Ahead of Print version of the article, ‘Acute pain after serratus anterior … Continue reading Leading anesthesiologist retracts paper after reader “noticed that the statistical approach was sub-optimal”

A Japanese anesthesiologist who just notched his sixth retraction apologized for his misconduct and said his institution is now investigating his entire body of work.  Hironobu Ueshima, of Showa University in Tokyo, who has roughly 170 publications, told Retraction Watch by email:  I want to apologize for my misconduct. Showa University has already launched the … Continue reading “I want to apologize for my misconduct,” says anesthesiologist whose work is under investigation