Infectious Disease Treatment Guidelines Weakened By Paucity of Scientific Evidence
By Linda on Nov 19, 2009 in Infections | comments(0)
Two separate analyses presented here at the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) 47th Annual Meeting revealed that most of the society’s treatment guidelines are based on expert opinion, controlled trials, and case studies. Only about 15% of the guidelines are supported by randomized controlled trials (RCTs), considered the highest level of evidence. Nonetheless, more than 40% of the guidelines’ recommendations were classified as class A, the strongest level of treatment recommendation, according to Dong Lee, MD, and colleagues from the Division of Infectious Diseases and HIV Medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Continued
