A standard treatment given to hospital patients suffering from burns, severe shock or blood loss might have caused thousands of deaths over 50 years, researchers have found. A human blood protein, called albumin, has been routinely administered intravenously to about 100,000 patients a year in the UK since it was first used to treat soldiers in the Second World War. It is often given to accident victims to top up their blood protein levels and is manufactured from donated blood. But a study led by Ian Roberts, a director at the Institute of Child Health in London, found no evidence that albumin saves lives.