<p><span style="font-size: small"><strong>ognosisPrognosis</strong> (Greek &pi;&rho;ό&gamma;&nu;&omega;&sigma;&eta; - literally fore-knowing, foreseeing) is a medical term to describe the likely outcome of an illness. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: small">When applied to large populations, prognostic estimates can be very accurate: for example the statement &quot;45% of patients with severe septic shock will die within 28 days&quot; can be made with some confidence, because previous research found that this proportion of patients died. However, it is much harder to translate this into a prognosis for an individual patient: additional information is needed to determine whether a patient belongs to the 45% who will succumb, or to the 55% who survive.<sup id="cite_ref-0" class="reference"><font size="2">[1]</font></sup> A complete prognosis includes expected time, function, and a description of the disease course such as progressive decline, intermittent crisis, or sudden, unpredictable crisis.</span></p><p>&nbsp;</p>