Boldt: the great pretender

Dear editor,

I have read with great interest the recent report regarding the story of German anaesthetist Joachim Boldt, whose faked works already cast huge influence on the basic therapy in the field of anaethesiology and critical care medicine.

From the report itself, it presumably suggested that Boldt's motives may be due to his greedy desire for higher reputation. However, as we know, most of Boldt's articles, as much as almost 90 studies, were completed with many other authors, including international partners and pharmaceutical producers, did all these collaborators never find or detect any faults in their perfect investigations before the event exposed to the world, including regular investigational documents, original experiment data, as well as statistical data?

The whole thing seems like a Monodrama, Captain Boldt played alone and has taken full responsibility so far: before and after the event, his cooperators, either in famous journals or in international conferences still keep silent and did not make an open address about their contribution and confess their mistakes. Then, can we ask them again about their motives repeatly taking part in Boldt's studies, without finding any errors within so long time?

Hydroxyethyl starch, as a potential organ injuried solution, has long being used in fluid resuscitation therapy. The popularity of Hydroxyethyl starch was mainly due to the worldwide promotional strategy and "star effects" established by these famous experts, including above Boldt's collaborators.

Therefore, it is reasonable to question Boldt's academic and business partners, as well as regulators and publishers, about the real lesson and reconsider their responsibility.