Several other factors – age, insurance, obesity, and preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM) – did not significantly affect the risk of this outcome. However, data on PPROM may be misleading because of the heterogeneity of that group, Dr. Bauer cautioned. "It includes any patient who had rupture 24 hours prior to labor; that includes the patient who had rupture 1 day prior to labor and also the patient who has been sitting on the [hospital] floor for several months prior to labor," she explained.
"Of note, teaching-hospital status as well as delivery volume were found to [confer] a mildly increased risk for severe sepsis, but had a minimal effect size when compared to the rest of these variables," Dr. Bauer further reported.
In additional findings, the rate of sepsis-related death among women with sepsis also more than doubled during the study period, from 2.2% to 4.9%. As of 2006-2008, there were 1.31 deaths due to sepsis for every 100,000 deliveries in the United States. "This mirrors the findings in the United Kingdom for increased deaths related to sepsis," she noted (BJOG 2011;118:1-203). There were too few sepsis-related deaths to assess risk factors for this outcome.
Dr. Bauer disclosed no relevant conflicts of interest.