A critical appraisal of clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of lower-limb osteoarthritis

doi:10.1186/ar381

Arthritis Res

Volume 4
Issue 1

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Pencharz JN
Grigoriadis E
Jansz GF
Bombardier C

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Grigoriadis E
Jansz GF
Bombardier C
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A critical appraisal of clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of lower-limb osteoarthritis

James N Pencharz¹^,2 , Elizabeth Grigoriadis³, Gwenderlyn F Jansz⁴^,5 and Claire Bombardier¹^,2^,6^,7^,8

¹Institute of Medical Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Canada

²Arthritis & Autoimmunity Research Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada

³Department of Medicine, Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Canada

⁴Department of Family and Community Medicine, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Canada

⁵Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Canada

⁶Institute for Work & Health, Toronto, Canada

⁷Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research Program, Department of Medicine and Department of Health Administration, University of Toronto, Canada

⁸Department of Medicine, Mt Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Canada

author email corresponding author email

Arthritis Res 2002, 4:36-44doi:10.1186/ar381


Published:	16 October 2001

Abstract

Clinical practice guidelines are important tools to assist clinical decision-making. Recently, several guidelines addressing the management of osteoarthritis (OA) have been published. Clinicians treating patients with OA must ensure that these guidelines are developed with consistency and methodological rigour. We undertook a qualitative summary and critical appraisal of six medical treatment guidelines for the management of lower-limb OA published in the medical literature within the past 5 years. A review of these six guidelines revealed that each possesses strengths and weakness. While most described the scope and intended patient populations, the guidelines varied considerably in the rigour of their development, coverage of implementation issues, and disclosure of conflicts of interest.