Jeremiah Cornelius's Journal: Placebo-Controlled Trials of Parachute Effectiveness

Abstract

Objectives:
To determine whether parachutes are effective in preventing major trauma related to gravitational challenge.

Design:
Systematic review of randomised controlled trials.

Data sources:
Medline, Web of Science, Embase, and the Cochrane Library databases; appropriate internet sites and citation lists.

Study selection:
Studies showing the effects of using a parachute during free fall.

Main outcome measure:
Death or major trauma, defined as an injury severity score > 15.

Results:
We were unable to identify any randomised controlled trials of parachute intervention.

http://popperfont.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/parachute.pdf

Published December 2003

[damn_registrars]

linky [bmj.com]

A call to (broken) arms

Only two options exist. The first is that we accept that, under exceptional circumstances, common sense might be applied when considering the potential risks and benefits of interventions. The second is that we continue our quest for the holy grail of exclusively evidence based interventions and preclude parachute use outside the context of a properly conducted trial. The dependency we have created in our population may make recruitment of the unenlightened masses to such a trial difficult. If so, we feel assured that those who advocate evidence based medicine and criticise use of interventions that lack an evidence base will not hesitate to demonstrate their commitment by volun- teering for a double blind, randomised, placebo controlled, crossover trial

Re:

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

I get my headaches f@cked away.

I don't want to join the control group - like St Augustine - just yet...

Re:

[smittyoneeach]

Smith & Pell could have done a more thorough literature search and reviewed the kamikaze Scotsmen [youtube.com] results.