The British Journal of Anaesthesia’s unusual experiment is designed to broaden replicability efforts beyond just methods and results. How deeply an anaesthetist should sedate an elderly person when they have surgery is a controversial issue, because some studies link stronger doses of anaesthetic with earlier deaths. So it should reassure clinicians to see a study in the British Journal of Anaesthesia that investigates and rules out such a link — the published paper’s discussion section says so explicitly: “These results are reassuring.”

Or are they? Another paper in the journal analyses the same results and reaches a different conclusion about death rates. It says the trial didn’t include enough patients to reach that conclusion — or any conclusion — on mortality.

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