OBSTETRICS Intrauterine growth restriction: comparison of American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists practice bulletin with other national guidelines Suneet P. Chauhan, MD; Lata M. Gupta, MD; Nancy W. Hendrix, MD; Vincenzo Berghella, MD OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to compare national guide- lines regarding small for gestational age (SGA). STUDY DESIGN: Along with American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) practice bulletin on abnormal growth, guide- lines from England, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand were reviewed. RESULTS: There are no guidelines on SGA from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecolo- gists (RCOG) guideline agrees with ACOG’s definition of abnormal growth, but there are noticeable variances in the diagnosis and man- agement of SGA. RCOG has more recommendations than ACOG (18 vs 4, respectively). The articles referenced varied, with only 13 similar articles being cited by the both committees. CONCLUSION: The differences in the 2 guidelines suggest that there is variance in how 2 committees synthesize the literature and issue recommendations. Key words: American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, national guidelines, recommendations, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, small for gestational age Cite this article as: Chauhan SP, Gupta LM, Hendrix NW, et al. Intrauterine growth restriction: comparison of American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists practice bulletin with other national guidelines. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2009;200:409.e1-409.e6. W ritten to optimize outcomes, minimize cost, and decrease medical liability, 1 the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) practice bulletins are 1 of the most influential publications for clini- cians doing obstetrics in the United States. 2 The bulletins identify pertinent publications on a specific topic, classify the references according to the US Pre- ventive Task Force, synthesize the litera- ture, and formulate evidence-based recommendations. 1 Accustomed to these guidelines since 1998, clinicians in the United States may be unaware that other countries have analogous publications. The Royal Col- lege of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (RCOG), for example, publishes green guidelines; the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecology (SOGC) of Canada, clinical practical guidelines, and the Royal Australian New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (RAN- ZCOG), clinical statements. Because 4 different organizations are synthesizing the publications in English, it occurred to us that comparison of guidelines on a specific topic would be illustrative of practices in different countries and instructive on the formulation of guidelines. The purpose of this review article was to ascertain the similarities and differ- ences, if any, in national guidelines on a specific topic. Because ACOG character- izes intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) as “one of the most common and complex problems in modern ob- stetrics,” 3 we chose this topic to compare guidelines from other countries. The re- view started with accessing the ACOG, RCOG, SOGC and RANZCOG web sites 4-7 and determining whether they have any publications on IUGR. As of March 2008, neither SOGC nor RAN- ZCOG had published national guide- lines on this topic. Thus, this review fo- cused on ACOG and RCOG guidelines on IUGR, 3,8 which were published in 2000 and 2002, respectively. Terminology and definition ACOG notes that the terms IUGR and small for gestational age (SGA) have been used interchangeably, creating con- fusion on the topic. SGA, according to American guidelines, is a newborn with an actual birthweight below 10th percen- tile for gestational age (GA), whereas IUGR is estimated fetal weight (EFW) below this threshold. 3 RCOG does not differentiate between IUGR and SGA. 8 Regardless of what the national guidelines call suboptimal growth, both acknowledge that there are mul- tiple definitions. Estimated or actual weight below the third or fifth percen- tiles, for example, are 2 common crite- ria that both guidelines acknowledge. Despite the various criteria, ACOG and RCOG consider the abnormal condi- tion to be estimated or actual weight below 10%. For RCOG, abdominal cir- From Aurora Health Care, Milwaukee, WI (Drs Chauhan and Gupta), and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Drs Hendrix and Berghella), Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA. Received July 8, 2008; revised Sept. 20, 2008; accepted Nov. 17, 2008. Reprints not available from the authors. 0002-9378/$36.00 © 2009 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved. doi: 10.1016/j.ajog.2008.11.025 Research www. AJOG.org APRIL 2009 American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology 409.e1