Executive summary
Rationale and target audience
The purpose of this document is to provide technical guidance on the
treatment of patients with cystic echinococcosis (CE). The aim is to ensure
that such patients are not subjected to unnecessary invasive procedures;
and that any procedure recommended is only provided in the context of
infrastructure and expertise sufficient to ensure this is done safely.
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Methods
These guidelines were developed in accordance with WHO’s procedures for guideline development.1
This process included developing an algorithm to help identify the 11 priority questions set out using the
population, intervention, comparator, and outcome (PICO) framework; retrieving evidence by the systematic
review team; and assessing and synthesizing the evidence using the standard Cochrane “Risk of Bias” tool,
the Review Manager (RevMan) software to assess the data, and the GRADE evidence profile system to assess
the certainty of the evidence.
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Summary of recommendations
Overall, comparative reliable research on treatment options was absent, and decision was based
on discussions by experts to develop a consensus. These guidelines include seven new conditional
recommendations with the corresponding research evidence assessed as very low certainty. The cyst stages
are described in section 1.2 and Fig. 3.
