[Up-to-date medical care for perioperative venous thromboembolism in Japan--standardization of care for perioperative venous thromboembolism in Japan: preface].

New era in the prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in Japan started in 2004 when the Japanese guideline for prevention of VTE was released by the editorial committee on the Japanese guideline for prevention of VTE and Japanese public health system began to cover the cost of physical prevention of VTE for hospitalized patients. The incidence of perioperative symptomatic pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) significantly decreased in 2004 compared with 2003 and 2002 according to the results of the annual research for perioperative PTE by the Japanese Society of Anesthesiologists (3.62/10,000 cases in 2004, 4.41/10,000 cases in 2002, 4.76/10,000 cases in 2003). However, there has been no change in the mortality rate of perioperative PTE during these three years. This special issue was planned to introduce the panel discussion titled as "Up-to-date medical care for perioperative venous thromboembolism in Japan-Standardization of care for perioperative venous thromboembolism in Japan" in the 53rd annual scientific meeting of the Japanese Society of Anesthesiologists at Kobe in 2006.