[The practice guideline 'Viral hepatitis and other liver diseases' (second revision) from the Dutch College of General Practitioners; a response from the perspective of general practice].
This revised practice guideline appears to concern a relatively arbitrarily chosen group of liver diseases. Why not choose for hepatitis alone or for a complete liver practice guideline? The approach to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis does not differ from that of other lifestyle diseases. The elaboration on hepatitis misses the importance of the ethnic risk factor even though there is much literature evidence to support this association. This is not in accordance with the new policy of the Dutch College of General Practitioners to pay more attention to ethnic factors in practice guideline development. Apart from these criticisms, the practice guideline is well structured and well written, notably with respect to the strategy for hepatitis A, B and C.
Harmsen
J A M
JA
Erasmus MC-Centrum, Medische Faculteit, Wolphaertsbocht 109, 3082 AG Rotterdam. j.harmsen@erasmusmc.nl
D005006:Ethnicity; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D006525:Hepatitis, Viral, Human / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000592:standards*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D012955:Societies, Medical