National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines on myocardial revascularisation

Cardiologists in the UK predominantly use the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and European Society of Cardiology guidelines to help guide decision-making. This article will appraise the current recommendations from NICE regarding myocardial revascularisation and compare them with other major international guidelines. While there are many similarities, subtle differences exist. These differences arise in part due to the evidence base at time of publication, as well as from the different healthcare systems that they are designed for, and from the cost-effectiveness models that dominate the methodology used by NICE. The clinical implications of the differences between the international guidelines will be analysed.