Toxic shock syndrome: incidence and geographic distribution from a hospital medical records reporting system.

A large database of hospital records maintained by the Commission on Professional and Hospital Activities Professional Activity Study (CPHA-PAS) was used to estimate the temporal incidence and geographic distribution of toxic shock syndrome (TSS). The CPHA-PAS hospital-diagnosed incidence was 3.5 times the reported TSS incidence, with a gradual decrease over the time period 1981-83. Marked differences in the regional occurrence of cases may provide clues to the etiology of this complex disease.