A Canadian medical journal has issued corrections on 138 case reports published over 25 years, revealing they were fictional. Paediatrics & Child Health, the journal of the Canadian Paediatric Society, published these cases in its Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program series since 2000 without disclosing their fictional nature.

The corrections follow a January New Yorker article that exposed one case about opioid exposure through breast milk as fabricated. The journal's editor-in-chief Joan Robinson stated they decided to add correction notices after the article brought attention to the fictional nature of these teaching tools. The move surprised researchers who had spent years investigating claims based on these reports.

Medical experts argue the fictional cases should have been clearly labeled from publication. Former JAMA editor George Lundberg emphasized that readers have the right to expect accuracy in peer-reviewed journals unless explicitly stated otherwise. The revelation has implications for research that cited these cases and raises questions about disclosure practices in medical publishing.