[A Case of Gangrenous Cholecystitis Complicated by Ascending Colon Cancer, Successfully Treated with Two-Stage Surgery].

An 80-year-old woman with epigastric pain and weight loss presented to our hospital with cancer of the ascending colon and cholelithiasis. Initially hospitalized for a suspected gallstone attack, she later developed gangrenous cholecystitis. She underwent a laparoscopic cholecystectomy, which revealed abscess formation and necrosis extending into the gallbladder duct.

A survey of informed consent in patients with dementia in the US and Japan.

This study aimed to confirm the reality of family-focused medical treatment of dementia in Japan and the US. It conducted a questionnaire survey on informed consent from patients with dementia among neurologists and psychiatrists in four prefectures in the Tokai Region (Aichi, Gifu, Mie, and Shizuoka) and dementia specialists in the US. Of the responses, 120 (39.

Issues concerning life-prolonging treatment in Japan, as considered from attitudes among the legal and medical professions.

In this paper, the author explores the clinical ethical issue of the withdrawal and withholding of life-prolonging treatment, surveying 2,848 lawyers and 2,469 doctors as medical and legal professionals in Japan on a variety of points for discussion. The main survey items are: (1) systems that should be used in the withdrawal and withholding of life-prolonging treatment at the end of life; (2) problems in determining treatment strategy at the end of life; (3) assessment of suspension of life support systems (extubation); and (4) strategies for better end-of-life care. While 42.

The status of central ethical reviewing and challenges regarding its introduction to non-interventional studies in Japan.

In 2018, we conducted a study on 121 ethics review committee offices in Japan to examine the state of "central review" in non-interventional studies and discern any challenges regarding its introduction. Of the 452 offices that were invited to participate, 121 responded (26.8% response rate), and 35 (28.

Support Systems for Medical Decision-Making: Considerations for Japan.

Clinical issues involving ethical dilemmas arise daily and confound physicians as they provide medical care. These dilemmas require difficult decisions as physicians must respect patients' values, lifestyles, and freedom of choice while protecting life and promoting health. This is made more challenging as values and lifestyles become more diverse, making third-party support necessary to accommodate the wishes of stakeholders, particularly patients.

The ethics of blood transfusion refusal in clinical practice among legal and medical professions in Japan.

We investigated the differences in Japanese and United States medical and legal professional opinions on ethical support for clinical ethical issues using the refusal of blood transfusions on the grounds of religious principles as an example of a clinical ethical issue. In ethical support systems for medical institutions in Japan, 95.0% of "clinical training designation hospitals" have hospital ethics committees, and 63.

An overview of ethical review committees in Japan: examining the certification applications of ethical review committees.

The survey involves examining the applications from 142 institutions that have consented to make available all certification applications from 2015 and 2016 to a research project for building a certification system for an ethics committee run by the Agency for Medical Research and Development. The number of certified institutions is 20 (14.1%).

[Ethical guidelines for clinical studies: overview].

Clinical research is guided by ethical principles promulgated in several statements, principally the Nuremberg Code, the Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical Association etc. In Japan, clinical research of medical products, principally trial of new pharmaceutical products is regulated by GCP (good clinical practice). Other types of clinical research are regulated by some ethical guidelines for clinical researches.

Risk disclosure in securities exchange and medical treatment contracts.

The duty of risk disclosure in medical treatment contracts is examined first through comparison with securities exchange contracts, second, by examining the contract as dealt in judicial precedent, ensued by an analysis and proposal by the author. In both types of contracts, the number of judicial judgments finding for the plaintiff based solely on violation of the duty of risk disclosure is increasing. Different explanations, however, should apply for the increase.