What is a Risk Calculator?
Facing abdominal surgery for colon and uterine cancer, Kathleen Rivard listened last Thursday as Stuart Bussell, her surgeon at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut, laid out the odds: a 1% risk of death, an 18% risk of a complication like an infection at the surgical incision site, and an 8% chance of a more serious complication like cardiac arrest.
Full article on handicapping the risks of surgery.
Sounds interesting, but I don’t know what people are going to do with the information.
I agree with Tom. What do I do with the odds, once I know about them?
If there are option besides surgery, I want to know the risks associated with each of my options. If the surgery is necessary, the risks of complications would not do me much good but could help my doctor better plan (or maybe I could research getting a better doctor).