Probably the most frequently asked question by patients and their families before surgery is: Doctor, do we have any risks with this surgery? It is important to assess these risks before surgery, yet there is no uniform method for assessing patients for preoperative risks. Recently, a surgical team at the University of Birmingham School of Medicine devised a simple and easy protocol to predict postoperative complications – measuring the time it takes patients to climb stairs. These doctors collected 342 patients undergoing elective general surgery to conduct the trial, including 88 patients undergoing colon surgery, 58 patients undergoing pancreatic surgery, 41 patients undergoing gastroesophageal surgery, 38 patients undergoing liver surgery, 34 patients undergoing small bowel surgery, 30 patients undergoing retroperitoneal surgery, and 53 patients undergoing other types of surgery. In this test, they used a single step staircase and had the patients step up and down, back and forth seven times, to record the time consumed by the patients. It was found that patients who took less than 15 seconds in the test had a very low complication rate of less than 5%. Patients who took more than 25 seconds had a complication rate of more than 55% – that is, more than half the chance of having a complication. Patients who took less time also had less prolonged hospital stays, while those who took more time may have needed three more days in the hospital. This study shows that time spent climbing steps is an independent, independent of other factors and a very strong predictor of postoperative complication rates.