No Uniformity in the References of Clinical Practice Guidelines for Bariatric Surgery: a Review of 3 Similar Guidelines Published in 2020

Abstract

In 2020, updated versions of the clinical practice guidelines of the European Association for Endoscopic Surgery, the Canadian Adult Obesity Clinical Practice Guidelines and the Dutch Federation for Medical Specialist clinical practice guidelines on bariatric surgery were published. We systematically reviewed and compared them on recommendations and references. Although the authors would have had access to the same literature, only 5 out of 655 unique references were used by all 3 guidelines and just 49 references by any combination of 2 guidelines. These findings attest to the subjectivity involved in clinical practice guidelines development and could be the cause for the observed differences in recommendations. International cooperation in guideline development might be a conceivable solution.

Keywords: Bariatric Surgery; Clinical practice guidelines; Non-uniformity; References; Subjectivity.