A single center retrospective study is a poor match for a multicenter prospective randomized controlled trial
Nathaniel Usoro, University of Calabar, Nigeria
24 February 2011
A single center retrospective cohort study cannot rationally be used to overturn the findings and conclusions of a multicenter prospective randomised controlled trial supported by several other studies (Marik & Corwin, 2008). Using such a study to support blood transfusion, a war-time practice that crept into civilian medicine 'through the back door' so to speak, and that is obviously on the way out courtesy of Evidence Based Medicine, is like using retrospective data to prove that analogue technology is superior to digital. New TRICCs or no, blood transfusion remains a hazardous treatment of unproven efficacy and proven adverse outcome (Rawn, 2008). It may yet turn out to be the biggest scandal in modern medical practice.
Critical Care
A single center retrospective study is a poor match for a multicenter prospective randomized controlled trial
24 February 2011
A single center retrospective cohort study cannot rationally be used to overturn the findings and conclusions of a multicenter prospective randomised controlled trial supported by several other studies (Marik & Corwin, 2008). Using such a study to support blood transfusion, a war-time practice that crept into civilian medicine 'through the back door' so to speak, and that is obviously on the way out courtesy of Evidence Based Medicine, is like using retrospective data to prove that analogue technology is superior to digital. New TRICCs or no, blood transfusion remains a hazardous treatment of unproven efficacy and proven adverse outcome (Rawn, 2008). It may yet turn out to be the biggest scandal in modern medical practice.
Competing interests
None declared