Perioperative use of beta-blockers in vascular and endovascular surgery

Editor—Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the letter from Bolsin and Conroy¹ in reference to our systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials and observational studies investigating the effect of perioperative use of beta-blockers in vascular and endovascular surgery.² They express their concerns regarding the inclusion of two observational studies³⁴ and a randomized clinical trial,⁵ and suggest that these studies should be excluded from the meta-analysis because of allegations of scientific misconduct of the senior (or first) author, D. Poldermans, of these studies. Of note, the randomized trial⁵ (related to the DECREASE-1 study) has already been excluded from our analysis in light of the expression of concern published by the editors of the European Heart Journal.⁶

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