Associations between preoperative risks of postoperative complications: Results of an analysis of 4.8 Million ACS-NSQIP patients

Am J Surg. 2022 Jun;223(6):1172-1178. doi: 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2021.11.024. Epub 2021 Dec 2.

Abstract

Background: Surgical Risk Preoperative Assessment System (SURPAS) estimates patient's preoperative risk of 12 postoperative complications, yet little is known about associations between these probabilities- We sought to examine relationships between predicted probabilities.

Methods: Risk of 12 postoperative complications was calculated using SURPAS and the 2012-2018 ACS-NSQIP database. Pearson correlation coefficients (r) were computed to examine relationships between predicted outcomes. "High-risk" was predicted risk in the 10th decile.

Results: 4,777,267 patients were included. 71.1% were not high risk, 10.7% were high risk for 1, and 18.2% were high risk for ≥2 complications. High mortality risk was associated with high risk for pulmonary (r = 0.94), cardiac (r = 0.98), renal (r = 0.93), and stroke (0.96) complications. Patients high-risk for ≥2 complications had the most comorbidities and actual adverse outcomes.

Conclusions: High preoperative risk for certain postoperative complications had strong correlations. 18.2% of patients were high-risk for ≥2 complications and could be targeted for risk reduction interventions.

Keywords: NSQIP; Preoperative prediction of risk; Preoperative risk prediction models; SURPAS; Surgical outcomes; Surgical risk assessment; Surgical risk calculators.

MeSH terms

  • Databases, Factual
  • Humans
  • Postoperative Complications* / etiology
  • Postoperative Period
  • Quality Improvement*
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Risk Assessment / methods
  • Risk Factors