Table 1.

Characteristics of the selected guidelines

Guideline	Intervention
	Medication	Exercise	Surgery	Injections	Equipment	Education	Supplements	Passive treatments	Period covered with literature review
Canadian Consensus Conference [8]	X								2000–2004
Ottawa Panel [11]		X							Not mentioned (published in 2005)
Schnitzer/American College of Rheumatology [7]	X	X	X	X	X	X			Not mentioned (published in 2002)
European League Against Rheumatism [6]	X	X	X	X	X	X	X		1966–2002
Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement [9]	X	X		X	X	X	X	X	Not mentioned (published in 2004)
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons [10]	X	X	X	X	X	X			1990–2000