[Tracing of analysis and prophylaxis on medical malpractice in Japan]

The role of drugs, especially injectables, in medical treatment is extremely important. In Japan, accidents associated with injections were not uncommon. Post-injection neuroparalysis of the radial nerve and sciatic nerve was associated with problems in textbooks, which described injection sites at the regions of neural passage. Then, in the 1970s, quadriceps femoral muscle contracture and deltoid muscle contracture became a social problem. When the author examined the osmotic pressure of various injectables, some injectables were found to deviate from the physiological range. When 335 injectables were evaluated for the potential to cause hemolysis, many injectables marketed for intramuscular injection gave strong hemolytic reaction, which attracted attention. Next, 89 types of injectables were tested for the potential to cause muscle damage by injecting into the femoral muscle of rabbits, and severe muscular damages were observed with antipyretics, analgesics, and antibiotics. The group lawsuit of Yamanashi Prefecture was settled at the Tokyo High Court in 1989, with the pharmaceutical company agreeing to pay over 2.95 billion yen as settlement. Giving drugs to patients occupies an important place among medical act. Medical disputes concerning accidents of wrong drugs and wrong usage are common. Obviously health care workers should exercise great caution in their duties, but without measures taken against medical equipment and drugs, such as containers and seals, this type of accidents will not be reduced. Through giving numerous speeches and lectures on medical accidents throughout the years, the author had felt strongly the need for teaching materials such as video tapes that can be used for self-learning. In 1999, the video entitled "Medical Accident-Learning from Actual Cases-" was finally completed, which consists of 6 parts (1. General consideration, 2. Blood transfusion, 3. Drug administration, 4. Surgery, 5. Examinations, 6. Management). For each area, typical incidents are presented as reproduced video taping. Then the criminal responsibility, civil responsibility and administrative responsibility of the doctor or nurse concerned are questioned in the form of questionnaires. Subsequently, the author also published a commentary book for the video that provides commentaries of the cases.