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  • Letter to the Editor
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Letter to the Editor

Journal of Perinatology volume 26, pages 385–386 (2006)Cite this article

We thank Dr Bloom for his interest and concerns. Dr Bloom is familiar with the Pediatrix database and makes some excellent points for us to consider. He raises three primary concerns: (1) whether matching by site and year would have improved our analysis; (2) he suggests we investigate the potential confounder of CPAP; and (3) he disagrees with the conclusions drawn from the associations between early indomethacin and spontaneous intestinal perforation (SIP).

First, Dr Bloom stated concerns about the design of our analysis. It was not our intent to match the surgical NEC patients to the SIP patients but instead to describe the demographic differences between two distinctive populations. Site variation in practice and process of care could have influenced the results as an unmeasured confounding variable; however, when included in multivariate analysis site was not a potential confounder.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Virginia, Children's Hospital, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    J T Attridge, R Clark & P V Gordon

  2. Pediatrix Medical Group, Inc., Sunrise, FL, USA

    R Clark

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  1. J T Attridge
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  2. R Clark
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  3. P V Gordon
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Attridge, J., Clark, R. & Gordon, P. Letter to the Editor. J Perinatol 26, 385–386 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jp.7211517

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