Criteria for diagnosing aspiration pneumonia in Japan - A scoping review

Aspiration pneumonia accounts for a significantly higher proportion of pneumonia cases in Japan than in Western countries. We conducted a scoping review of the criteria for diagnosing aspiration pneumonia in the literature on aspiration pneumonia reported from Japan, where the incidence of aspiration pneumonia is higher than in Europe and the United States. We searched MEDLINE and the Cochrane Library as literature databases. The search keywords were "aspiration," "pneumonia," and "Japan," combined with AND. After eliminating duplicates, we screened 852 articles and reviewed 112 articles in full, with 58 articles included in the final analysis. Of the 58 articles, 25 adopted the clinical diagnostic criteria for aspiration pneumonia proposed by the Japanese Study Group on Aspiration Pulmonary Disease. The remaining 33 articles used their own diagnostic criteria. There were 12 articles that described the features of images. There were three articles stating that aspiration pneumonitis should be excluded. There were five reports in which all patients were examined for swallowing function disorder. In Japan, the diagnostic criteria for aspiration pneumonia proposed by the Japanese Study Group on Aspiration Pulmonary Disease were used extensively, and various other criteria were also used. Aspiration pneumonia diagnosed according to different criteria should be carefully compared in terms of incidence, therapeutic effects, and prognosis.