The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Workforce on Evidence Based Surgery develops clinical practice documents including clinical practice guidelines, expert consensus documents, and expert opinion/white papers to provide practical assistance to the STS membership. These documents are intended to assist physicians and other health care providers in clinical decision-making by describing a range of generally acceptable approaches for the diagnosis, management, or prevention of specific diseases or conditions. 

Clinical practice guideline documents are thoroughly reviewed, and the conclusions and recommendations are based on a systematic review of scientific evidence published in medical literature. 
 
Expert consensus documents represent the collective opinions of an expert panel on a clinical topic. The opinions expressed in the statement(s) are not generally developed in accordance with the formal evidence review process outline for clinical practice guidelines. The authors may suggest treatment strategies based on their collective knowledge and clinical experience. 

An expert opinion/white paper is authored by leading experts on clinical topics with scarce data and significant uncertainty. These documents are intended to synthesize existing scientific literature, divergent opinions, and other treatment strategies, rather than provide recommendations.   

Adult Cardiac Surgery

Clinical Practice Guidelines
Expert Consensus Documents

General Thoracic Surgery

Clinical Practice Guidelines
Expert Consensus Documents

Congenital Heart Surgery

Clinical Practice Guidelines
Expert Consensus Documents

Suggest a Guideline Topic 

STS-Endorsed Clinical Practice Documents

These clinical practice documents have been developed by external organizations and reviewed by the Society for inclusion on the STS website.

STS Guideline Policies

Clinical Practice Guidelines Publication Policy 

Clinical practice guidelines are intended as one element of the physician’s armamentarium and should not be considered inclusive of all proper methods of care or exclusive of other methods of care reasonably directed at obtaining the same results. Moreover, these guidelines are subject to change over time, without notice. The ultimate judgment regarding the care of a particular patient must be made by the physician in light of the individual circumstances presented by the patient. 
 
STS clinical practice guidelines may be printed or downloaded for individual and personal use only. Guidelines may not be reproduced in any print or electronic publication or offered for sale or distribution in any format without the express written permission of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.