Abstract
Sauer N, Lautenbach A, Pohl K, Schön G, Brose HP, Schulze Zur Wiesch CA, Aberle JC. Screening and management of postoperative hypoparathyroidism-induced hypocalcemia in thyroidectomized patients in the endocrine ward compared with the surgical ward. Ear Nose Throat J. 2018 Apr-May; 97(4-5):E22-E26.
The Authors informed the journal that during their further evaluation of the data presented in the article, they identified some concerns regarding the validity of the data based on differences in the number of patients referenced in the article and the number of patients actually treated at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf during the time period referenced in the article (January 6, 2009 to December 16, 2011). The article references 170 patients (counting those operated in the Department of General, Visceral and Thoracic Surgery and the Department of Othorhinolaryngology (ORL) together). However, hospital records for 2011 show that 183 patients received thyroid surgery only counting those operated in the Department of General, Visceral and Thoracic Surgery at the hospital. Due to the search terms entered in the database, not all affected patients were included in the analysis. Given the difference in the number of actual and cited cases, the authors are concerned the article’s findings may be influenced by the author’s selection bias accordingly are not valid. The authors apologize to readers.
The publisher wishes to reference the unusual circumstances of this retraction notice being published without the published article as reference. SAGE Publishing was informed of the retraction in early 2019, shortly after becoming publisher of the journal. After determining that the article is not included in the journal’s archive, but is referenced in PubMedCentral and other databases, SAGE has published this retraction notice for the awareness of readers. The authors have provided a pre-publication version of the article, which is appended to the end of the retraction notice as reference.