Effect of Perioperative Administration of Dexmedetomidine on Delirium After Cardiac Surgery in Elderly Patients: a Double-Blinded, Multi-Center, Randomized Study [Retraction]

Shi CX, Jin J, Qiao LY, Li T, Ma JH, Ma ZK. Clin Interv Aging. 2019;14:571–575.

At the request of the authors, the Editor and Publisher of Clinical Interventions in Aging wish to retract the published article. Following publication, concerns were raised that the reported study did not match with details of the associated study that had been registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry under registration number, ChiCTR-IOR-17014122.

The authors responded to our queries and explained that they failed to complete registration of the study to the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry before starting their clinical research. Their request to retrospectively register the study prior to publication was declined by the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry because the trial had already been completed for three years. To comply with journal requirements the authors provided the clinical registration number (ChiCTR-IOR-17014122) from an unrelated dexmedetomidine study by members of their own research group. The owners of the study associated with registration number, ChiCTR-IOR-17014122, were unaware this number had been used in the publication of another study.

The authors contacted the journal to request that the article be retracted and put this error in judgement down to inexperience and wish to apologise for any confusion that was caused.

Our decision-making was informed by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retraction.

The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”.

This retraction relates to this paper