• Tatsuya Morita, Seiji Bito, Hiroshi Koyama, Yosuke Uchitomi, and Isamu Adachi.
• Department of Palliative and Supportive Care, Palliative Care Team, Seirei Hospice, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan. tmorita@sis.seirei.or.jp
• J Palliat Med. 2007 Jun 1; 10 (3): 770-80.

BackgroundAlthough differences in physician practices of artificial hydration therapy for terminally ill patients with cancer can cause unnecessary suffering from overhyrdration or underhydration of patients, no clinical guideline is available in Japan. This paper illustrates a summary of a nationwide project to construct a clinical guideline for artificial hydration therapy.MethodsThe Japanese Society of Palliative Medicine constructed a national multidisciplinary committee to develop a clinical guideline for artificial hydration therapy for terminally ill patients with cancer, using evidence-based and formal consensus-building methods with the Delphi technique.ResultsAfter systematic literature review, three sequential sessions of discussion using the Delphi method, and an external review, a clinical guideline was established. This guideline includes general recommendations, specific recommendations (31 recommendations for medical aspects, 9 recommendations for nursing, and 7 recommendations for ethics), background descriptions, case examples, communication examples, a complete reference list, and structured abstracts of all relevant original articles.ConclusionThe Japanese Society of Palliative Medicine constructed a clinical guideline for artificial hydration therapy for terminally ill patients with cancer, using evidence-based and formal consensus-building methods. The clinical efficacy of this guideline should be tested in the future.

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