Abstract
A questionnaire was carried out to evaluate the influence on clinical medical treatment of the clinical practice guidelines for the management of acute cholangitis and cholecystitis. From January to February 2007, the questionnaire was carried out with the members of the Japanese Society for Abdominal Emergency Medicine, the Japanese Society of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery, the Japan Biliary Association and the research members of the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, in total about 8,000 doctors. 1,836 (22.9%) doctors responded. The guidelines contents had been read by 61.3% of them. Of these, the doctors who showed guideline-influenced changes in their medical care Accounted for 58.9%. In addition, about 90% of the guidelines users referred to criteria in the clinic, and many clinical doctors evaluated the guidelines as being useful. At the time of medical care, the doctors who used the guidelines for explanation to a patient and their family accounted for 57%. The guidelines can exert an influence on clinical medical treatment, but the important problems are how the dissemination of these guidelines and promotion of their use is effected.
