[Influence of clinical guidelines on medical practitioners]

Evidenced-based clinical guidelines for diagnosing and treating hepatocellular carcinoma patients were published in 2005, which were edited by the executive members of the Liver Cancer Study Group of Japan (Chief Editor, Professor Masatosi Makuuchi, MD). This article presents the results of two surveys investigating the validity and usefulness of those guidelines. The author's opinions regarding the evaluation of the guidelines and guideline-based clinical practice are also presented. The surveys revealed that the guidelines are well known and thought to be useful by medical practitioners. The guidelines had changed the therapeutic strategy of 20% of experts in the field. However, 43% of experts and 30% of nonexperts believed that the guidelines restricted their medical discretion. Additionally, the percentage of physicians who felt that medical malpractice suits would increase exceeded those who did not. However, the guidelines do not provide clear recommendations in about 45% of diagnostic and therapeutic points because of a lack of evidence. The recommendations on these points in the guidelines require the commonsense discretion of physicians. The guidelines should be followed based on an understanding of biology and medicine, and not based on dogmatism.