text_1: Statin Drugs May Cut Risk of Kidney Trouble After Surgery
text_2: The story could have benefited from some strong, independent voices commenting on the findings and from a more careful explanation of the study itself. Readers deserved to know more about the study’s limitations, about the absolute differences seen in the groups studied and about the risks associated with statin use. The story went beyond the press release used to promote the study, but it needed to go much further in helping readers understand the strength of the findings and their potential impact on readers considering surgery. One of the risks associated with surgery is kidney failure, an outcome no patient or surgeon wants. To be able to reduce that risk by taking a pill would be a major boon to medicine. This study hints that statins could provide that benefit, but, as the authors themselves acknowledge, there are significant limitations to a backward-looking, uncontrolled study. Those limitations and the reality of the necessary steps to create a foundation for solid clinical practice needed to be acknowledged in this story and other coverage of the same topic.