Elsevier to ‘soon investigate’ two Macchiarini papers more than a year after retraction request
Elsevier says it will begin investigating two papers coauthored by disgraced surgeon Paolo Macchiarini “soon,” more than a year after two critics of his work formally requested the publisher retract the articles — and nearly a decade after two institutions found him guilty of misconduct for related work. The papers, published in Biomaterials in 2009 … Continue reading Elsevier to ‘soon…
Elsevier has announced it will investigate two papers coauthored by surgeon Paolo Macchiarini "soon," following criticisms and retractions more than a year after initial requests. The papers, published in Biomaterials in 2009 and 2010, detail a 2008 trachea transplant in Barcelona that Macchiarini claimed was successful. However, the patient required stents, her lung function did not improve, and she eventually had a lung removed.
At least three others who underwent Macchiarini's transplants died. Macchiarini, who was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for gross assault in 2023, claims to have been unaware of the investigation plans and that neither the journal nor Elsevier contacted him. In 2023, The Lancet retracted the two Biomaterials papers after a Swedish court and Karolinska Institutet found Macchiarini guilty of misconduct.
The retractions were based on the ethical review board's call for six retractions and Karolinska's findings of scientific misconduct. Macchiarini and several coauthors were found guilty of fabricating and distorting descriptions of patients and surgical outcomes. Critics have highlighted inconsistencies in the papers, including the use of histology images described as biopsies taken after the transplant in the 2009 article but before the procedure in the 2010 paper.
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