[Predicting postoperative mortality]

This article briefly discusses the reliability of predictive models for postoperative mortality. In current practice, prediction models for postoperative mortality often have limited clinical value, because the mortality risk is generally low. Moreover, in preoperative screening there is not so much a need for predictions about the average effectiveness of an intervention or treatment for an average patient, but rather for estimating the patient's individual risk. Postoperative functional decline and loss of quality of life are often underexposed in preoperative decision making.