Translation of benign prostatic hyperplasia guidelines into clinical practice.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this article is to describe the current position of clinical practice guidelines for benign prostatic hyperplasia in daily management and identify the potential barriers that may hinder the implementation of guidelines into clinical practice.


RESULTS
Recent studies have attempted to compare and grade benign prostatic hyperplasia clinical practice guidelines using appraisal instruments underlining the issues of quality and updates of guidelines. Surveys have evaluated the adoption of guidelines from the urological community and recent studies have made major contributions to our knowledge of the translation of evidence to daily practice.


CONCLUSIONS
Numerous clinical practice guidelines (both national and international) for benign prostatic hyperplasia exist. High methodological quality clinical practice guidelines are likely to be the most beneficial to patients and strength of recommendations depends on available evidence. Efforts to implement guidelines are not always successful and a considerable variation especially in diagnostic assessment of benign prostatic hyperplasia has been reported. Difficulties in translation of benign prostatic hyperplasia guidelines into clinical practice are related to lack of knowledge but also to differences in routine practices, beliefs, cost, availability, and reimbursement policy. Bridging the implementation gap represents a challenging task for clinical practice guideline supporters.
Gravas
Stavros
S
Department of Urology, University Hospital of Larissa, Larissa, Greece. sgravas2002@yahoo.com
Tzortzis
Vassilios
V
Melekos
Michael D
MD
D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011470:Prostatic Hyperplasia / Q000628:therapy*