Update of the Mexican College of Rheumatology guidelines for the pharmacologic treatment of rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

Background: The pharmacologic management of rheumatoid arthritis has progressed substantially over the past years. It is therefore desirable that existing information be periodically updated. There are several published international guidelines for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis that hardly adapt to the Mexican health system because of its limited healthcare resources. Hence, it is imperative to unify the existing recommendations and to incorporate them to a set of clinical, updated recommendations; the Mexican College of Rheumatology developed these recommendations in order to offer an integral management approach of rheumatoid arthritis according to the resources of the Mexican health system.

Objective: To review, update and improve the available evidence within clinical practice guidelines on the pharmacological management of rheumatoid arthritis and produce a set of recommendations adapted to the Mexican health system, according to evidence available through December 2012.

Methods: The working group was composed of 30 trained and experienced rheumatologists with a high quality of clinical knowledge and judgment. Recommendations were based on the highest quality evidence from the previously established treatment guidelines, meta-analysis and controlled clinical trials for the adult population with rheumatoid arthritis.

Results: During the conformation of this document, each working group settled the existing evidence from the different topics according to their experience. Finally, all the evidence and decisions were unified into a single document, treatment algorithm and drug standardization tables.

Conclusions: This update of the Mexican Guidelines for the Pharmacologic Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis provides the highest quality information available at the time the working group undertook this review and contextualizes its use for the complex Mexican health system.

Keywords: Adult; Adulto; Arthritis medical care; Artritis reumatoide; Atención médica de la artritis; Drug therapy; Farmacoterapia; Rheumatoid arthritis.