Reddit reviews Ending Medical Reversal: Improving Outcomes, Saving Lives (Johns Hopkins Press Health Books (Paperback))

I think you're getting at two different phenomena here. The second, which you mention is the concept of medical reversal. This is when common medical practices, often performed because of pathophysiological reasons or because of inadequate trials, are overturned. So NICE-SUGAR, per your example. My personal favorite here is one of the earliest medical reversals, the CAST trial, which showed that the routine use of antiarrythmics post-MI actually increased mortality (this was literally the standard of care, and based on sound logic, but WAY before my time).


Your first example -- tobacco smoke enemas -- I think falls into another class of deprecated medical practices, and that's pre-scientific notions of disease. So the idea of a tobacco smoke enema was that it would warm the inside of the body, counteracting the coolness of near-drowning. This was well within the boundaries of medical understanding of the humors (the view was that cold water would form a excess of phlegm from the cold and wet water, and the warm and dry tobacco smoke in the body cavity would increase the production of yellow bile to counteract this). There are a ton of humoral therapies that, to modern doctors, seems just absurd. If I had to pick the biggest blunder, I'd go with bloodletting, one of the oldest, and also one that managed to stick around until the 20th century.

There's a book on this: https://www.amazon.com/Ending-Medical-Reversal-Improving-Outcomes/dp/1421417723

Haven't read it but it has good reviews.

Several

https://www.amazon.com/Bad-Pharma-Companies-Mislead-Patients/dp/0865478066?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=ad-backfill-s-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0865478066

https://www.amazon.com/Ending-Medical-Reversal-Improving-Outcomes/dp/1421417723/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1523507539&sr=1-1&keywords=vinay+prasad

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