TY - JOUR T1 - Fatalities after CAM: an overview JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 404 LP - 405 DO - 10.3399/bjgp11X578070 VL - 61 IS - 587 AU - Edzard Ernst Y1 - 2011/06/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/61/587/404.abstract N2 - Many practitioners of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and most patients seem to believe that CAM is almost totally devoid of risks. Critical observers, however, should know better. There are numerous risks and some of them can be serious.In this overview, I very briefly summarise reports of fatalities that have occurred after acupuncture, EDTA-chelation therapy, and chiropractic. This article is based on three recently published systematic reviews.1–3 It is aimed at highlighting the rare but potentially serious nature of adverse events after CAM.A systematic review included 86 instances of deaths after acupuncture.1 Many of the primary reports were incomplete, and causality was often less than certain. The most frequent causes of death were pneumothorax; puncture of the heart, large blood vessel, central nervous system, or liver; and various types of (mostly bacterial) infections. The majority of the reports originated from China, Japan and other Asian countries. Others came from Germany, Norway, and the US.In CAM EDTA-chelation therapy is sometimes advocated for cardiovascular diseases such as claudicatio intermittens. A systematic review summarised all deaths after EDTA-chelation therapy reported … ER -