title: [Problems associated with application of evidence-based medicine to anesthetic practice: preface and comments].
abstract: Evidence-based medicine (EBM) plays an important role in our clinical decision making and thus improves our anesthetic practice. It is also true that there are number of limitations and criticism of the use of EBM. In this special issue, the topic of EBM in anesthetic practice was featured. Following the keynote discussion on the pitfalls in EBM, seven subtopics including 1) perioperative blood glucose control, 2) treatments of ARDS, 3) body temperature control and perioperative complications, 4) pulmonary fibrosis and oxygen administration, 5) treatments of acid-base abnormalities, 6) the use of nitrous oxide in dental practice, and 7) central venous catheter-related infection are discussed in detail. It is clear from these discussions that EBM has not only the beneficial aspect but also the potential negative aspect, although EBM is becoming regarded as the "gold standard" for clinical practice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba 260-8670.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nishino
mesh_terms: D000776:Anesthesiology; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine