Should acyclovir prophylaxis be used in late pregnancy in women with recurrent genital herpes infection? How to use a clinical decision analysis.

Introduction The purpose of this article is to explore the benefits of using decision analysis in clinical decision making when the published evidence about the effectiveness of an intervention is uncertain. The use of decision analysis will be explored using the example of aciclovir prophylaxis in late pregnancy for women with recurrent genital herpes infection.' The article draws on the guidelines published by Richardson and others which set out a framework for evaluating the usefulness of a clinical decision analysis model (table 1).2 3