Accuracy of the Surgeons’ Clinical Prediction of Postoperative Major Complications Using a Visual Analog Scale

John C. Woodfield, Peter M. Sagar, Dinesh K. Thekkinkattil, Praveen Gogu, Lindsay D. Plank and Dermot Burke

Medical Decision Making, 2017, vol. 37, issue 1, 101-112

Abstract: Background . Although the risk factors that contribute to postoperative complications are well recognized, prediction in the context of a particular patient is more difficult. We were interested in using a visual analog scale (VAS) to capture surgeons’ prediction of the risk of a major complication and to examine whether this could be improved. Methods . The study was performed in 3 stages. In phase I, the surgeon assessed the risk of a major complication on a 100-mm VAS immediately before and after surgery. A quality control questionnaire was designed to check if the VAS was being scored as a linear scale. In phase II, a VAS with 6 subscales for different areas of clinical risk was introduced. In phase III, predictions were completed following the presentation of detailed feedback on the accuracy of prediction of complications. Results . In total, 1295 predictions were made by 58 surgeons in 859 patients. Eight surgeons did not use a linear scale (6 logarithmic, 2 used 4 categories of risk). Surgeons made a meaningful prediction of major complications (preoperative median score 40 mm for complications v. 22 mm for no complication, P

Keywords: postoperative complications; prediction; visual analog scale; feedback; risk assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0272989X16651875 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:medema:v:37:y:2017:i:1:p:101-112

DOI: 10.1177/0272989X16651875

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Medical Decision Making
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().