Mascarella MA, et al. - Researchers performed this cohort study of 31,399 operations registered in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database in order to assess the extent to which sociodemographic, clinical, and frailty-related characteristics influence short-term postoperative adverse events in patients undergoing inpatient head and neck cancer surgery. Further, they developed a preoperative risk index integrating the risk factors of short-term major postoperative adverse events (AEs) for these patients. Multiple regression analysis revealed an independent association of older age, male sex, smoking, anticoagulation, recent weight loss, functional dependence, free-tissue transfer, tracheotomy, duration of surgery, wound classification, anemia, leukocytosis, and hypoalbuminemia with major AEs or death. The Head and Neck Surgery Risk Index (HNSRI), using all of these characterisitics, had a sensitivity of 80.1% (95% CI, 79.4-80.8) and specificity of 72.3% (95% CI, 70.3-74.2) regarding occurrence. Findings support the possible utility of the HNSRI for counselling patients awaiting head and neck cancer surgery and their families.