Electronic Letters to:
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eLetters: Electronic letters published:
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Risk assessment with low numbers
- R A Johnson (15 September 2004)
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R A Johnson, Doctor
Send letter to journal:
johnsonra{at}doctors.org.uk R A Johnson
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Dear Editor, In their article discussing the use of right ventricular pacing in balloon dilatation of the aortic valve Daehnert et al describe the procedure as "safe". Whether a process is safe or not doeas rather depend on your point of view. However the use of the term safe applied in the context a procedure used in 14 patients is clearly not justified. The underlying risk of mortality could be as high as nearly 20% with a confidence interval of 95%. Surely no-one could describe such a level of risk as "safe". When describing series without an adverse event doctors must remember that there is a statistical possibility that such a series may have occurred by chance and that the underlying risk is higher than it appears. |
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