Ann Clin Anesth Res | Volume 3, Issue 1 | Research Article | Open Access
Hiroshi Yonekura*
Department of Clinical Anesthesiology, Mie University, Japan
*Correspondance to: Hiroshi Yonekura
Fulltext PDFAs Japan does not have a population-based registry of general anesthesia cases, frequency and disposition of the population requiring general anesthesia remain unknown. We aimed to estimate the number of general anesthesia cases in Japan and to describe the demographic and regional characteristics of this population. We used data from the National Database of Health Insurance Claims and Specific Health Checkups of the Japan Open Data repository, recently developed by the Japanese government. Using the claims codes to identify general anesthesia, we calculated the number of general anesthesia episodes based on sex, age, surgical setting, and prefecture from April 2016 to March 2017 in Japan. Using the national insurance claims open database in 2016, we noted 2,427,894 general anesthesia cases annually. Additionally, we noted 19,132 general anesthesia cases in outpatient settings, representing 0.79% of overall cases. A total of 65,009 pediatric patients (< aged 5 years) underwent general anesthesia in inpatient settings (2.7% of all inpatient cases). The estimated number of super-elderly patients (≥ 85 years) who underwent general anesthesia in an inpatient setting was 169,044 (7.0% of all inpatient cases). There was substantial regional variation of general anesthesia cases per anesthesiologist in Japan. This is the first study to investigate the epidemiology of general anesthesia practice in Japan. Our novel use of a national claims database allowed us to accurately estimate the annual number of general anesthesia cases in Japan and may provide valuable medical and economic information for medical research, healthcare delivery, and governmental policy.
Yonekura H. Epidemiology of General Anesthesia Practice in Japan: An Ecological Study Using Open Data from the National Database of Health Insurance Claims and Specific Health Checkups of Japan. Ann Clin Anesth Res. 2019; 3(1): 1021.