The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in a surge of publications seeking to understand the SARS-CoV-2 virus. A byproduct of the rush to understand COVID-19 has been the publication and subsequent retraction of papers promoting unfounded treatments, such as ivermectin—an anti-parasitic medication. This study aims to determine the impact retracted studies may have had on ivermectin prescription rates. TriNetX was used to gather anonymized patient data from 67 healthcare organizations both within the USA (36,711 patients; 91.6%) and abroad (3,266 patients; 8.14%) to obtain prescribing rates for ivermectin between April 2020–September 2022. Google Trends was used to gauge online interest in purchasing ivermectin in relation to prescribing rates. We found that ivermectin use largely increased following periods in which later-retracted journal articles were written touting its potential benefits. Multiple spikes in Google searches were observed, with the first three local peaks occurring within the first, second, and third publication ‘clusters,’ respectively. The maximum peak for searches occurred just one month after the maximum number of ivermectin prescriptions. This information is important for understanding how health-related misinformation spreads, and how to best minimize and counteract the impact of such misinformation in the future.
Background: We queried a global database to understand re-intervention rates following urethroplasty with the goal of evaluating whether they align with previously published data. Methods: Using the TriNetX database and Common Procedural Terminology (CPT) and International Classification of Diseases-10 (ICD) codes, we identified adult male patients with urethral stricture disease (ICD N35) who underwent one-stage anterior (CPT 53410) or posterior urethroplasty (CPT 53415), with or without (substitution urethroplasty) a tissue flap (CPT 15740) or buccal graft (CPT 15240 or 15241). We set urethroplasty as the index event and used descriptive statistics to report the incidence of secondary procedures (using CPT codes) within 10 years after the index event. Results: There were 6606 patients who underwent urethroplasty within the last 20 years, with 14.3% of patients undergoing a second procedure after index event. Upon subgroup analysis, reintervention rates were 14.5% for anterior urethroplasty vs. 12.4% of patients with an anterior substitution urethroplasty (RR 1.7, p = 0.09) and 13.3% for posterior urethroplasty vs. 8.2% for patients with a posterior substitution urethroplasty (RR 1.6, p < 0.01). Conclusions: Most patients will not need any form of re-intervention following urethroplasty. These data align with previously described recurrence rates, which may help urologists counsel patients considering urethroplasty.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.