[Comprehensive Therapeutic Approach to Hypertension. Recommendations for Central America and the Caribbean]

Latin American hypertension guidelines, tailored to the needs of countries of Central and South America, should be applied and known by most Latin American physicians. The knowledge and implementation of the Guidelines is one of the greatest challenges of hypertension societies in Latin America such as the Central American and Caribbean Society of Arterial Hypertension (SCCH), the Latin American Society of Hypertension (LASH) and the Inter-American Society of Cardiology (SIAC). In 2020, the Inter-American Society of Cardiology (SIAC) published its position on the current Guidelines for Arterial Hypertension due to the need to standardize the evaluation, diagnosis, treatment and control of hypertension, establishing recommendations that should be adopted in all Latin American countries, aimed at optimizing the management of cardiovascular risk and achieving a substantial improvement in the reduction of cardiovascular events and mortality. This document intends to reinforce all proposals by the LASH guidelines and the position of the SIAC in relation to the therapeutic approach and pharmacological recommendations for patients with hypertension (HT), in order to achieve better HT control in the Central American and Caribbean area, and the consequently prognosis improvement of cardiovascular disease in the area.