Appraisal of the Quality of Neurosurgery Clinical Practice Guidelines

Abstract Object The rate of neurosurgery guidelines publications was compared over time to all other specialties. Neurosurgical guidelines and quality of supporting evidence were then analyzed and compared by subspecialty. Methods The authors first performed a Pubmed search for ‘Neurosurgery’ and ‘Guidelines.' This was then compared against searches performed for each specialty of the American Board of Medical Specialties. The second analysis was an inventory of all neurosurgery guidelines published by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Guidelines clearinghouse. All Class I evidence and Level 1 recommendations were compared for different subspecialty topics. Results When examined from 1970 to 2010 the rate of increase in publication of Neurosurgery guidelines was about one-third of all specialties combined (p