Letters
Authors' reply
BMJ 1996; 312 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.312.7039.1159c (Published 04 May 1996) Cite this as: BMJ 1996;312:1159
- John Hall
- Associate professor of surgery Royal Perth Hospital, Perth WA 6000, Australia
EDITOR,—It is interesting that a clinical trial evaluating postoperative respiratory complications has drawn comment mainly from anaesthetists. I can reassure them that the patients included in our study at Royal Perth Hospital were treated by a pain control team staffed by anaesthetists.
Our study was pragmatic in nature and did not evaluate the pathophysiology of atelectasis. Some time ago, Schwartz and Lellouch pointed out that there are essentially only two types of …