Renal Artery Stenosis in Patients Undergoing Major Surgery or otherwise Critically Ill: The Short-Circuit between Association and Causality

Risk prediction is an intense field of research and there is an increasing need for an interest in being able to empirically estimate customized, patient-specific risks for virtually all surgical operations in a user friendly format. Surgical risk evaluation before major surgery should offer an opportunity to improve shared decision making and patient care. Yet, there is ongoing debate on how to better identify patients at risk in several important clinical scenarios and when weighing a given risk factor for decision making or when trying to amend it.