- Dalbeth, Nicola;
- Mikuls, Ted;
- Brignardello-Petersen, Romina;
- Guyatt, Gordon;
- Abeles, Aryeh;
- Gelber, Allan;
- Harrold, Leslie;
- Khanna, Dinesh;
- King, Charles;
- Levy, Gerald;
- Libbey, Caryn;
- Mount, David;
- Pillinger, Michael;
- Rosenthal, Ann;
- Singh, Jasvinder;
- Sims, James;
- Smith, Benjamin;
- Wenger, Neil;
- Bae, Sangmee;
- Danve, Abhijeet;
- Khanna, Puja;
- Kim, Seoyoung;
- Lenert, Aleksander;
- Poon, Samuel;
- Qasim, Anila;
- Sehra, Shiv;
- Sharma, Tarun;
- Toprover, Michael;
- Turgunbaev, Marat;
- Zeng, Linan;
- Zhang, Mary;
- Turner, Amy;
- Neogi, Tuhina;
- FitzGerald, John
OBJECTIVE: To provide guidance for the management of gout, including indications for and optimal use of urate-lowering therapy (ULT), treatment of gout flares, and lifestyle and other medication recommendations. METHODS: Fifty-seven population, intervention, comparator, and outcomes questions were developed, followed by a systematic literature review, including network meta-analyses with ratings of the available evidence according to the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology, and patient input. A group consensus process was used to compose the final recommendations and grade their strength as strong or conditional. RESULTS: Forty-two recommendations (including 16 strong recommendations) were generated. Strong recommendations included initiation of ULT for all patients with tophaceous gout, radiographic damage due to gout, or frequent gout flares; allopurinol as the preferred first-line ULT, including for those with moderate-to-severe chronic kidney disease (CKD; stage >3); using a low starting dose of allopurinol (≤100 mg/day, and lower in CKD) or febuxostat (<40 mg/day); and a treat-to-target management strategy with ULT dose titration guided by serial serum urate (SU) measurements, with an SU target of <6 mg/dl. When initiating ULT, concomitant antiinflammatory prophylaxis therapy for a duration of at least 3-6 months was strongly recommended. For management of gout flares, colchicine, nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, or glucocorticoids (oral, intraarticular, or intramuscular) were strongly recommended. CONCLUSION: Using GRADE methodology and informed by a consensus process based on evidence from the current literature and patient preferences, this guideline provides direction for clinicians and patients making decisions on the management of gout.