Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons guidelines development: Clinical Practice Guideline Update Standard Operating Procedure.

Introduction: The SAGES Guidelines Committee creates evidence-based clinical practice guidelines (CPGs). Updates which incorporate new evidence into the guidelines are necessary to maintain relevance for clinical use. A description of our standard operating procedure for this process is described here, which contributes to SAGES' commitment to producing high-quality clinical recommendations.

Methods: This paper outlines the SAGES Clinical Practice Guideline Update Standard Operating Procedure in order to incorporate regular updates to our guideline development process.

Results: SAGES has developed an evidence-based, standardized approach in updating current clinical practice guidelines to ensure that physicians and patients have access to the most appropriate recommendations.

Conclusion: Societies that promote guidelines within their organization must make an intentional effort to regularly evaluate the relevance of their recommendations. The SAGES Guidelines Update Standard Operating Procedure aims to provide a framework to reliably and systematically review existing guidelines and update them as needed.