The legal and forensic value of the guidelines

Scope: the Authors examine the current jurisprudential context relative to the juridical and forensic value of the guidelines in order to illustrate what are the rules that regulate their use in diagnosis and therapy. Materials and Methods: the Authors analyze the case decided by the sentence no 8254/2011 of Supreme Court of Appeals considering its clinical characteristics in relation to the legal principle affirmed. The compatibility of this sentence with the principles enshrined in law and the rules of professional conduct are evaluated. Results and Conclusions: the principle stated by the Supreme Court in the judgment here reported, establishes that guidelines developed by requirements of economic nature can not influence physicians in their therapeutic choices, and it clashes with the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court, which emphasizes the need to consider in the health field both the legal aspect and the financial resources in order to achieve a complete protection of the patient. Moreover, the decision under consideration introduces a rule that does not allow doctors to fully exercise their professional freedom in the interest of patients without the risk of receiving administrative penalties or having to respond to legal liability.