Introduction: Gout affects about 5% of men and 1% of women, with up to 80% of people experiencing a recurrent attack within 3 years.
Methods and outcomes: We conducted a systematic review and aimed to answer the following clinical questions: What are the effects of treatments for acute gout? What are the effects of xanthine oxidase inhibitors to prevent gout in people with prior acute episodes? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and other important databases up to September 2013 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically; please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this review). We included harms alerts from relevant organisations such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Results: We found 21 studies that met our inclusion criteria. We performed a GRADE evaluation of the quality of evidence for interventions.
Conclusions: In this systematic review, we present information relating to the effectiveness and safety of the following interventions: colchicine, corticosteroids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and xanthine oxidase inhibitors.