The original letter was written by
Elaine Murphy but signed by her husband
John. The journal had printed an earlier report about 'guitar nipple', a condition said to occur when some styles of
guitar playing excessively irritate the player's
nipple (a form of
contact dermatitis similar to
jogger's nipple), which Murphy and her husband believed was likely a joke. Murphy now points out that even a cursory study of the cellist's
posture would show that the 'cello scrotum' complaint would not occur. The unlikelihood of a cellist's posture contributing to scrotal injury was raised back in 1974, but seems to have been overlooked. Murphy admitted the hoax in 2009 in another letter to the
BMJ after an article in the 2008
Christmas edition of the
BMJ made reference to the complaint. The truth of the case report had already been questioned in the medical literature in 1991. Others have cited it, although expressing scepticism. The implications of this and other hoax medical letters for
evidence-based medicine and
public understanding of science were discussed by
Séamus Mac Suibhne. ==See also==