Recommendations for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in Saudi Arabia: adolopment of the 2021 American College of Rheumatology guidelines

BACKGROUND: The 2021 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) rheumatoid arthritis (RA) guideline considers the specific context of the United States which differs from that of Saudi Arabia in many aspects that may impact recommendations. The objective of this project was to adapt a set of prioritized recommendations from the 2021 ACR guideline for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis RA for the context of Saudi Arabia, by the Saudi Society for Rheumatology (SSR). METHODS: The process followed the GRADE-ADOLOPMENT methodology, and the reporting adhered to the RIGHT-Ad@pt checklist. Working groups included a coordination group and a 19-member panel representing different stakeholder groups. The Evidence to Decision (EtD) tables included evidence on health effects from the source guideline and contextual information from the Saudi setting. RESULTS: The panel prioritized and adapted five recommendations from the source guideline. The process led to modifying two out of the five prioritized recommendations, all listed here. In naive patients with low disease activity, methotrexate (MTX) is conditionally recommended over sulfasalazine (SSZ) (modified direction); hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is conditionally recommended over SSZ (unmodified). Initiation of csDMARDs with short-term glucocorticoids is conditionally recommended over csDMARDs alone in naive patients with moderate to high disease activity (modified direction). Switch to subcutaneous MTX is conditionally recommended over addition/switch to alternative DMARD(s) in patients taking oral MTX who are not at target (unmodified). Discontinuation of MTX is conditionally recommended over gradual discontinuation of the bDMARD or tsDMARD for patients taking MTX plus a bDMARD or tsDMARD who wish to discontinue a DMARD (unmodified). CONCLUSION: Rheumatologists practicing in Saudi Arabia can use the adoloped recommendations generated by this project while adopting the rest of the recommendations from the 2021 ACR guidelines. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s41927-022-00301-y.