Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine
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Although clinical guidelines have an influential role in healthcare practice, their development process and the evidence they cite has been subject to criticism. This study evaluates the quality of guidelines in cardiac clinical practice by examining how they adhere to validated methodological standards in guideline development. A structured review of cardiac clinical practice guidelines published in seven cardiovascular journals between January 2001 and May 2011 was performed. ⋯ Applicability (median score, 20.80%; range, 4.20-54.20%) and editorial independence (median score, 33.30%; range, 0-62.50%) had the lowest scores. There is considerable variability in the quality of cardiac clinical practice guidelines and this has not improved over the last 10 years. Incorporating validated guideline assessment tools, such as AGREE II, may improve the quality of guidelines.
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Review
Anaemia in the older surgical patient: a review of prevalence, causes, implications and management.
This review provides the clinician with a summary of the causes, implications and potential treatments for the management of anaemia in the older surgical patient. The prevalence of anaemia increases with age and is frequently identified in older surgical patients. Anaemia is associated with increased postoperative morbidity and mortality. ⋯ These include correction of nutritional deficiencies and the use of intravenous iron and erythropoesis stimulating therapy. Clear differences exist between the elective and emergency surgical populations and the translation of research findings into these individual clinical settings requires more work. This should lead to a standardized approach to the management of this frequently encountered clinical scenario.