Dr. Hamann and Colleagues Reply

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Sir: First, we would like to address Dr. Preda’s questions regardingnumbers and percentages. As reported in our article,¹ 16patients were rehospitalized within 6 months after dischargeand 33 were rehospitalized between 6 and 18 months after discharge.Some of the latter had already been rehospitalized in theearlier period, reducing the sum to 39 patients who had beenhospitalized at least once within 18 months after discharge.’ ‹