Abstract
Cummings Macri SM, Masek-Hammerman K, Crowell AM, et al. Polioencephalomalacia secondary to hypernatremia in squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus). Vet Pathol. 2014;
The authors have chosen to retract the article entitled “Polioencephalomalacia Secondary to Hypernatremia in Squirrel Monkeys (Saimiri sciureus),” published in Veterinary Pathology (2014, 51(3):651-658). Further evaluation of clinical case materials which were not available to us at the time of submission and publication of this work suggests that a subset of the animals described in the paper may have had inadequate access to water, likely causing or contributing to the described hypernatremia-associated polioencephalomalacia. The conclusions of the paper, stating an association between hypernatremia and polioencephalomalacia remain valid, however with this new information we can no longer conclude that co-morbidity-associated illness was the sole cause of the hypernatremia in some of the reported animals. The condition is mentioned in a recent book as well: Fahey MA, Westmoreland SV. Nervous system Disorders of Nonhuman Primates and Research Models. In: Abee CR, Mansfield K, Tardif S, Morris T, eds. Nonhuman Primates in Biomedical Research: Diseases. New York, NY: Elsevier; 2012, 755-756.