Baysal Ö, Hamilton JAM, Hamilton CJCM, Braat DDM, Beerendonk CCM, Nelen WLDM. Clinical practice guidelines for fertility preservation in young women undergoing gonadotoxic treatment: an overview and critical appraisal of methodological quality and content.
Reprod Biomed Online 2018;
37:60-70. [PMID:
29709394 DOI:
10.1016/j.rbmo.2018.03.022]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2017] [Revised: 03/19/2018] [Accepted: 03/21/2018] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
RESEARCH QUESTION
What is the methodological quality and content of internationally available clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) on fertility preservation (FP) care in adult women?
DESIGN
Internationally available CPGs on FP care in adult women were identified after conducting an extensive literature search and consulting (inter)national key experts. The methodological quality of the CPGs was appraised by an (inter)national panel of experts using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument. The content of the best CPGs, scoring ≥60% for the domain 'Rigour of development' of the AGREE II instrument, was extracted and categorized according to their topic.
RESULTS
Thirty of the 1808 documents found were included. After consulting (inter)national key experts, 30 CPGs were included, six of which scored ≥60% for their 'Rigour of development'. The number of FP-related topics discussed by these six CPGs ranged from 4 to 12. The number of recommendations provided by the CPGs on these topics varied. The number of topics to which ≥5 recommendations were dedicated ranged from 0 to 4 between CPGs.
CONCLUSION
CPGs on the subject of FP care are available, but there is room for improvement in quality and content. Although written for use in daily practice, the CPGs can also be used to develop quality indicators to monitor the quality of current FP care or to evaluate future improvement initiatives.
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