Retraction to: Intensive Care Med (1992) 18:449–454 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01708579

The Editor-in-Chief has retracted this article. A statement by Justus Liebig University (JLU) [1] on the scientific credibility of articles by Joachim Boldt has recommended that journal editors consider retracting all articles "where Boldt is the responsible author even if there is no obvious indication of falsification". Given the concerns about the studies performed by Joachim Boldt the Editor-in-Chief no longer has confidence in the work reported in this article. J Boldt has not responded to correspondence from the Publisher about this retraction. The Publisher was not able to obtain a current email address for C. Knothe, B. Zickmann, C. Herold, E. Dapper and G. Hempelmann.