POTTER Risk Calculator Is Accurate and User-Friendly for EGS Laparotomy Patients

Panossian VS, Argandykov D, Arnold SC, et al. Validation of Artificial Intelligence-based POTTER Calculator in Emergency General Surgery Patients Undergoing Laparotomy: Prospective, Bi-institutional Study. J Am Coll Surg. 2024, in press.

In this article, the authors reported outcomes of a prospective study that intended to validate the POTTER risk calculator.

The calculator is an easily used methodology that can assist caregivers and patients seeking to quantify the risk of emergency procedures. Prior validation studies have been observational, population-based and have suggested that the POTTER calculator is accurate and potentially valuable.

Patients included in this study (n = 361) underwent non-trauma emergency laparotomy in two academic institutions during the interval 2020–2022. Outcomes of interest were rates of 30-day mortality, septic shock, respiratory failure, bleeding, and pneumonia. Median age of the cohort was 63 years and 45.4% were women. Overall mortality and morbidity were 24.1% and 51.4%.

The POTTER calculator predicted mortality with a c-statistic of 0.90 and individual morbidity outcomes with c-statistics ranging from 0.80-0.89.

The authors concluded that the POTTER calculator was accurate, user-friendly, and easily interpretable. They recommended use of the calculator to improve caregiver and patient estimation of operative risk.