Clinical guidelines for herpes labialis: recommendations and quality evaluation according to AGREE II.

Unlabelled: Cold sores require Healthcare professionals to employ specific approaches for prevention and management, with the need for effective therapeutic guidelines and ongoing improvement in patient care.

Aim: To evalúate the methodological quality of Clinical Guidelines (CG), clinical guides and manuals for care of the population affected by herpes labialis, to verify their compliance with evidence-based health standards.

Materials And Method: A search was conducted for CG on labial herpes in the MedicalLiteratureAnalysis andRetrieval System Online (Medline) database, Google Scholar, Brazilian Virtual Health Library (BVS), and sites of institutions/professional categories, using the descriptors "herpes labialis" or "oral herpes". Document quality was assessed using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research & Evaluation Instrument (AGREE II). The Kappa test was used to avoid randomness or poor agreement between results.

Results: Analysis of the 12 selected publications on the management of labial herpes revealed flaws in quality, as the publications did not follow a quality standard. The main quality flaws identified were in "rigor in development" and "applicability. ".

Conclusions: Priorities need to be redefined in the development of CG for clinical practice related to fever blisters to reduce the variability of the quality standard, and generate reliable, applicable recommendations.