Recent trends in the clinical practice of nutritional support in Japan from the results of a national survey carried out in 2001 Yoshifumi Inoue, Shogo Yoshida, Kenji Okamura, Kenichiro Ikeda, Yoichi Tabira, Ryoji Fukushima and Shohei Ogoshi Committee of the National Survey on Nutritional Support, The Japanese Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition The Committee of the National Survey on Nutritional Support was established under the JSPEN for the purpose of gaining an understanding of recent trends in the clinical practice of nutritional support in Japan. In October 2001, a questionnaire regarding nutritional support containing 90 questions was mailed to a total of 6,500 doctors of ten medical departments throughout Japan. Five hundred and fifteen doctors (8.5%) responded. Although the survey response rate was low, the numbers were sufficient to estimate the trend of nutritional support in Japan. Based on the results of this survey, a comparative study was made regarding the administration ratio between parenteral nutrition (PN) and enteral nutrition (EN), as well as the criteria for selecting the route of nutritional support. Although it has been assumed that Japanese doctors prefer PN to EN as a means of artificial nutritional support, the results of this survey revealed this to be incorrect. Among 20,263 in patients on a given day during the survey period, those who received PN represented 17.9%, while those who received EN represented 18.1%. For the treatment of patients who require artificial nutritional support, 51.4% of doctors answered that they select EN. For patients who require long-term nutritional support for more than six weeks, 95.7% of doctors answered that they select EN through the nasogastric tube or percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG). However, there was a clear trend that in the case of surgical patients, the selection of PN was preferred. To the question "which do you have detailed knowledge of, PN or EN?", 39.5% answered that they know more about PN and 20.3% about EN. In the area of knowledge and administering experience regarding various nutritional support methods, 98.6% of doctors answered that they had knowledge of PEG, while 65.9% answered that they have experience of supervising cases in which it was administered. However, only 25.7% of doctors know of the Hickman catheter and only 12.6% have experience in supervising its use. On the other hand, 68.9% of doctors answered that they know about the totally implantable subcutaneous infusion port, and 43.3% of them have experience in supervising its use. It can be concluded therefore that the selection and administration of EN has shown a certain increase in Japan. Nevertheless as PN continued to be selected and administered by a high percentage of doctors in the field of nutritional support for surgical patients, it is our task to remedy this for the future. From "The 8th Congress of the PENSA Programme & Abstract" Kochi, Japan, November 5-7, 2002 Page : 24