Study: ACS NSQIP Surgical Risk Calculator accurately estimates surgical risk

Editor's Note

The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) Surgical Risk Calculator accurately estimates the risk of postoperative complications, and the calculator’s performance would improve with recalibration, this study finds.

The statistical analysis for this study was based on 2.7 million surgical records collected between 2010 and 2014 from 586 hospitals that participate in ACS NSQIP.

The noncalibrated calculator performed well but there was a slight tendency for predicted risk to be overestimated for lowest- and highest-risk patients and underestimated for moderate-risk patients. This distortion was eliminated after recalibration.