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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Aug 28.
Published in final edited form as: Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2016 Oct 15;41(Suppl 20):S186–S192. doi: 10.1097/BRS.0000000000001831
Strength of Recommendation Interpretation
Strong Can be confidently applied to all or almost all patients.
Clinicians apply an intervention in all or almost all circumstances without a thorough review of the evidence and factors, and with an informing, but not necessarily detailed discussion with the patient.
Weak Can be applied to most patients, but not all patients.
Clinicians consider fundamental variables such as the quality of evidence, risk and benefit of the intervention, their experience, cost-effectiveness, and most importantly, patient preferences, thus, often resulting in a shared decision-making process with the patient.