About the Risk Calculator

The goal of the ACS NSQIP Pediatric risk calculator is to provide accurate, patient-specific risk information to guide both surgical decision-making and informed consent. The risk calculator uses 17 patient predictors (e.g., age, ASA class, transfer status, wound classification) and the planned procedure (CPT code) to predict the chance that patients will have any of 9 different outcomes within 30-days following surgery. The outcomes include:

  • Any complication (pneumonia, reintubation, PE, renal insufficiency, renal failure, UTI, central lines associated bloodstream infection, coma>24 hours, seizure, peripheral nerve injury, any cerebral intra-ventricular hemorrhage, CVA/Stroke, intracranial hemorrhage, cardiac arrest, VT, graft/prosthesis/flap failure, sepsis, superficial SSI, deep SSI, organ space SSI, bleeding event (blood transfusion ≥ 25 ml/kg), deep wound disruption, superficial wound disruption)
  • Pneumonia
  • Cardiac Complication (cardiac arrest)
  • Surgical Site Infection (SSI)
  • Urinary Tract Infection (UTI)
  • Venous Thromboembolism (VTE)
  • Renal Failure (progressive renal insufficiency or acute renal failure)
  • Unplanned Reintubation
  • Death

The risk calculator was built using data collected from > 180,000 operations from 67 hospitals participating in ACS NSQIP Pediatric from 2012-14. Entering the most complete and accurate patient information will provide the most precise risk information. However, the estimates can still be calculated if some of the patient information is unknown.