Abstract
Evidence-based medicine, which is defined as "the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of the best current evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients," and "evidence" refers to scientific knowledge about disease risks or treatment effectiveness derived from clinical research. On the other hand, practice guidelines are "systematically developed statements to assist practitioner and patient decisions about appropriate health care for specific clinical circumstances", and are most commonly used as an approach to change physicians' practice behavior. Recent guidelines are developed based on "evidence" with the emphasis on better patient outcomes. For busy clinicians, guidelines are one of the important sources of information for catching up with current medical knowledge so that it can be applied in the clinical practice. Recommendations in the guidelines cannot always apply to all patients, and physicians must make their own decision about which treatment option is best for their patients.
