J.Jpn. Surg. Soc.. 111(1): 3-7, 2010

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Feature topic

EFFECTS OF CLINICAL PATHWAYS ON POSTOPERATIVE DIET

Japanese medicine is now increasingly based on clinical pathways. The merits of reliance on a clinical pathway include the standardization of medicine which can thus shorten hospital stays, the induction of EBM (evidence-based medicine), and a reduction in unnecessary drugs or examinations. It is important to adopt new clinical pathways to maintain high-quality medical care. The establishment of such pathways will also help to rationalize and maximize the benefit of all medical treatments. A clinical pathway has been used more often in surgery than in the field of internal medicine. The new management method during the pre- and postoperative periods, such as the cessation of preoperative hair removal, administering a brief course of antimicrobial agents, and beginning food consumption in an earlier postoperative period, has been standardized with the establishment of clinical pathways. Postoperative infectious complications, such as surgical site infections, catheter-related infections, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus enteritis, have thus been reduced.

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