Surgical Risk Is Not Linear: Derivation and Validation of a Novel, User-friendly, and Machine-learning-based Predictive OpTimal Trees in Emergency Surgery Risk (POTTER) Calculator

Introduction:Most risk assessment tools assume that the impact of risk factors is linear and cumulative. Using novel machine-learning techniques, we sought to design an interactive, nonlinear risk calculator for Emergency Surgery (ES).Methods:All ES patients in the American College of Surgeons Natio