9% between 1998 and 2010, though the described population was older with prevalent chronic illness. The results presented here should be considered in the context

of several limitations. A retrospective design and use of an administrative data set with its attendant limitations affect interpretation of these results. However, the rarity of PANF precludes practical approach to capture prospectively patient-level data. In addition, the de-identified APR-246 molecular weight data do not allow accounting for multiple hospitalizations by the same patient during specific period, nor to directly account for specific patients transferred between acute care hospitals. However, a similar approach with the aforementioned limitations was used by other investigators of NF in the general population [6, 39]. In addition, the de-identified nature of the data did not allow linkage to preceding pregnancy-associated hospitalizations for the

postpartum hospitalization group, precluding directly exploring an association of PANF with surgical CP673451 order Selleckchem GSK2126458 interventions and other predisposing factors during delivery hospitalizations. Moreover, because time sequence cannot be established in administrative data sets, a cause and effect relationship of events cannot be directly explored even during same hospitalization. Thus, while previous case reports and case series suggest a strong association between postpartum PANF and preceding surgical procedures, the findings of the present study of the predominance of postpartum hospitalizations among the PANF cohort provide only indirect support for this association. The accuracy of case definition of NF in the present study has been based on ICD-9-CM coding at reporting hospitals. Administrative data sets do not provide information on pathological confirmation of NF diagnosis, raising a potential Selleck Temsirolimus of misclassification. Nevertheless, NF diagnoses were reported very sparingly (0.004%) among pregnancy-related hospitalization in this cohort and it is unlikely that miscoding occurred systematically or incrementally over time and thus misclassification is unlikely to explain the rise

in PANF incidence. In addition, the morbidity burden of PANF in the present study, as judged by rate of ICU admission and hospital length of stay is comparable to reports on NF in the general population [6, 39]. On the other hand, one cannot exclude underestimation of PANF in this cohort. Finally, the case identification approach used here is similar to prior investigations of NF in the general population [23, 39]. Microbiology data were not reported in the majority of PANF hospitalizations in this cohort, with similar limitation noted by others [34]. Restricting the analysis to PANF hospitalizations without additional reported sites of infection, while helping to exclude data on microbial isolates in PANF patients with non-NF infections, further limits the generalization of the results.