Risk Factors for Infection after Hysterectomy

To the Editor: In an article on risk factors for infection after hysterectomy, Shapiro et al. considered 26 items, such as antibiotic prophylaxis, age, duration of surgery, and pathological diagnosis (Dec. 30 issue).¹ The largest contributor to relative risk was abdominal approach (risk of 2.53 relative to a vaginal approach), and the next greatest was status as a clinic patient (risk of 2.00 relative to status as a private patient). In the body of the article the only reference to the risk associated with being a clinic patient was a four-sentence paragraph noting that status as a clinic, patient was.