The phrase "a procedure in itself" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to emphasize that a procedure is significant or complete on its own, independent of other processes or contexts.
Example: "The experiment was complex, but the data analysis was a procedure in itself that required careful attention."
Alternatives: "an independent process" or "a standalone procedure".
The number of procedures is not equivalent to the number of animals used by British scientists: a single animal might undergo several procedures, and the act of breeding a genetically modified mouse counts as a procedure in itself.
The number of procedures is higher than the number of animals used in UK laboratories because the breeding of a GM animal, for example, counts as a procedure in itself and an individual animal can undergo several procedures during the course of a research project.
Highly frequent blood collection can be a disturbing procedure in itself and is also clearly not always practicable or possible, especially in this study performed on working horses from riding schools.
Trephination was a procedure in which the surgeon drilled a hole into the patient's cranium.
Although the impact of the survival surgery protocol in the TNBS-treated group was not controlled for in the healthy control group in our study, other studies using the same established surgery protocol and sham treatment revealed a minimal impact of the procedure in itself on these animals [ 25, 27, 29, 30].
However, the results of the C-group do not indicate a major influence of the MSF procedure in itself.
In this situation in particular where local surgical back-up is not available, local clinicians must make the important decision whether to risk keeping the woman in local facilities or to transfer them to specialist obstetric services some distance away - a procedure which is in itself risky and distressing for mothers and babies and resource intensive for the maternity services [ 7, 14].
