RETRACTED: Management of seborrhoeic keratosis and actinic keratosis with an erbium:YAG laser-experience with 547 patients
Authors: M Ethunandan
V Ilankovan
A Sayan
A Sindel
Journal: International Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (2019)
Discipline: CLINICAL MEDICINE
Keywords: Er:YAG; actinic keratosis; laser treatment; seborrhoeic keratosis.
Affiliations: Oral and Maxillofacial Department, Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Poole, UK. Electronic address: ., Oral and Maxillofacial Department, Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Poole, UK., Oral and Maxillofacial Department, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, UK.

Abstract:  This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal). This article has been retracted at the request of the Editors because the photograph in Figure 1b was a duplicate image of Figure 1a, but with the keratosis removed, and did not represent the surgery that was described in the article. The authors apologise for this error. 

Retracted: Yes

PubPeer comments:
 In this paper, the authors, affiliated with Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Southampton General Hospital, Southampton (UK), describe a very effective laser treatment to remove certain types of skin lesions called keratoses. Figure 1 shows how well the treatment works. In panel a), you see the patient before treatment, with multiple keratoses on the left cheek, next to the nose, and under the eyebrow. In panel b), the same patient is shown 6 months after treatment with the magic laser. (Patient gave consent). ![file] These two photos look remarkably similar. Look at that one dark hair in the eyebrow, the position of the striped shirt, and the little veins around the nose. Concerned reader P Van Damme wrote a Letter to the Editor in which he politely stated that  obviously another management modality, i.e. Photoshopping , generated the results of the patient . See DOI: 10.1016 j.ijom.2019.09.018 The authors then responded  The photograph in our article is of the same patient at 6 months post-treatment1. The photograph was taken in the same room with a similar environment; unfortunately the patient wore the same shirt. in DOI: 10.1016 j.ijom.2019.10.004. ![file] Not only was it unfortunate that  the patient wore the same shirt , it was also sad that the journal accepted this excuse. Could the journal please have another look at the two photos and reconsider the possibility that these photos might be identical except for the presence absence of the skin lesions? , 
 Here is a quick Forensically analysis to support that these 2 photos are strikingly similar. ![file] , 
 Here s (b), color-reversed and superimposed on (a) to cancel out. ![file] The vanished keratoses are the only regions where the images are not identical , 
 This article has been retracted, although it is not completely clear when. The retraction notice reads:  *This article has been retracted at the request of the Editors because the photograph in Figure 1b was a duplicate image of Figure 1a, but with the keratosis removed, and did not represent the surgery that was described in the article. The authors apologise for this error.* , 
 #4 Describing this as an u2018erroru2019 is hard to reconcile with the authoru2019s previous explanation. ,