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| RESEARCH SERIES ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2022 | Volume
: 9
| Issue : 1 | Page : 55-58 |
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How to write case reports and case series
Prasanth Ganesan
Department of Medical Oncology, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry, India
| Date of Submission | 13-Mar-2022 |
| Date of Decision | 10-Apr-2022 |
| Date of Acceptance | 10-Apr-2022 |
| Date of Web Publication | 07-Jun-2022 |
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Prasanth Ganesan
Medical Oncology, 3rd Floor, SSB, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Dhanvantari Nagar, Puducherry - 605006
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/ijamr.ijamr_58_22
Case reports are considered the smallest units of descriptive studies. They serve an important function in bringing out information regarding presentation, management, and/or outcomes of rare diseases. They can also be a starting point in understanding unique associations in clinical medicine and can introduce very effective treatment paradigms. Preparing the manuscript for a case report may be the first exposure to scientific writing for a budding clinician/researcher. This manuscript describes the steps of writing a case report and essential considerations when publishing these articles. Individual components of a case report and the “dos and don'ts” while preparing these components are detailed. Keywords: Case reports, manuscript writing, case series, references
How to cite this article:
Ganesan P. How to write case reports and case series. Int J Adv Med Health Res 2022;9:55-8 |
| Introduction | |  |
A case report describes several aspects of an individual patient's presentation, investigations, management decisions, and/or outcomes. This is a type of observational study and has been described as the smallest publishable unit in medical literature.[1] A case series involves a group of patients with similar presentations or treatments. In modern medicine [Figure 1], these publications are categorized as the “lowest level of evidence”.[2] However, they serve several essential functions. For example, there are rare diseases where large, randomized trials, or even observational studies may not be possible. Medical practice, in these conditions, is often guided by well-presented case reports or series. There are situations where a single case report has heralded an important therapy change.[3] Further, case reports are often a student's first exposure to manuscript writing. Hence, these serve as training for budding scholars to understand scientific writing, learn the process of manuscript submission, and receive and respond to reviewer comments. This article explains the reasons why case reports are published and provides guidance for writing such type of articles. | Figure 1: Levels of evidence based on the type of publications. Although randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and meta-analyses are considered the highest level of “evidence” and the gold standard for the practice of modern medicine, these are not possible to conduct and inform practice for many situations faced in real-world practice. Thus, each of these levels has their own role, and it becomes important to be able to present each one in the best possible way
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| Why are Case Reports Published? | | |
A case report is often published to highlight the rarity of a particular presentation. However, it may be of much more value if it also informs some aspects of management. This could be in the form of rare expressions of a common disease so that clinicians who read will be aware and can consider additional possibilities and differential diagnoses when encountering similar situations. A new form of evaluation of a patient, either to facilitate the diagnostics or to improve understanding of the disease condition, may stimulate a case report. Novel treatments may be tried, and the results might be necessary to disseminate. This may be encountered either in rare diseases or conditions where treatment options are exhausted. Moreover, randomized trials report outcomes of a group and often do not inform about the individual patient. [Table 1] describes a few examples of case reports/case series which have had a remarkable impact on medical practice. | Table 1: A few selected examples of case reports or case series which have had a remarkable impact on clinical medicine
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| Ethical Issues | | |
If there is a possibility of patient identification from the report, it is mandatory to obtain informed consent from the patient while approval from the institutional ethics committee (IEC) may also be needed depending on institutional policies.[7] If identifying information is absent (or if suitable steps are taken to remove identifying information or hide the identity, (such as by covering the eyes), it may still be required by some journals to obtain ethics committee approval for certain types of case reports. If a case series involves retrospective chart review, “waiver-of-consent” may be sought from the ethics committee. Indian Ethical Guidelines do not separately address this issue in case reports.[8] The Committee on Publication Ethics has described best practices for journals when publishing case reports which also gives links to model consent forms.[9]
| How to Start? | | |
If you are a beginner and you have identified an interesting case which you want to report, the first step would be to sit with your team and discuss the aspects of the case you want to highlight in your publication.[10] Do a literature search and try to summarize available information before writing the draft. It would also be a good idea to understand which journal you are targeting; this will assist in determining the number of figures, the word limits, and ethical requirements (such as informed consent). Discussions with senior faculty about the authors and their order should also be done at this point to avoid issues later. For a beginner, it would be a good practice to present the case in the department or in an institutional scientific forum before writing up the manuscript.
| Components of a Case Report | | |
A case report usually has the following sections: an abstract, a brief introduction, the actual description of the case, and finally, the discussion which highlights the uniqueness of the case and includes a conclusion statement. Many journals these days publish case reports only as a letter to editor; in such cases, an abstract is not usually required.
Title
The title must be informative about the problem being reported. It may refer to the particular issue being highlighted in the report, or it may refer to the educational aspect of that particular report. Catchy titles are often used by authors to trigger interest among the readers and make them want to read the article. Authors may remember to use titles which will help people locate the article when searching the literature.
When writing a title, it may be best to avoid terms such as “case report,” “review of literature,” “unique,” “rare,” “first-report”; these do not add value to the presentation.
Introduction
This must introduce the condition and clearly state why the case report is worth reading. It may also contain a brief mention of the current status of the problem being described with supporting references.
Describing the case
The case must be presented succinctly, in a chronological order, clearly highlighting the salient aspects of the case being reported. Relevant negative findings may be provided. For example, if a case is being reported for elaborating a new type of treatment, then more attention must be given to treatment aspects (e.g., name of the drug, dosage, schedule, dose modifications, or the type of surgery, duration, and type of anesthesia) after briefly describing the presentation and diagnostics. The idea is that the reader must be able to apply the treatment in his/her practice if required.
However, if the case is being presented for diagnostic rarity/unusual clinical features/pathological aspects, then more attention must be given to these aspects. For example, if the emphasis is on tissue pathology, then the description must include details about tissue processing, types of stains, and immunohistochemistry details.
Figures and tables
Figures, as in any publication, should be self-explanatory. A properly constructed figure legend can be used for describing certain aspects of the case much better than long-winded text in the main manuscript. This will also help to reduce the word count in the main manuscript. If there are multiple figures (e.g., follow-up radiology series and response to treatment images), these can be combined as [Figure 1]a, [Figure 1]b, [Figure 1]c or [Figure 1]a, [Figure 1]b, [Figure 1]c, [Figure 1]d. This will help conform to the figure number limits prescribed by the journal. While preparing the figures, one must ensure that the quality of the art/photograph is not compromised. Further, patient identifying features must be masked, unless necessary to show.
Tables are usually not part of case reports but may be used. One example is presenting the baseline investigations in a tabular format which can facilitate assimilation as well as reduce the word count. Tables are more often used in case series. The most common is a type of table where the features of all the cases included are summarized with each row referring to an individual patient. This usually works for a series of up to ten patients; beyond that, the table may become crowded and difficult to understand. Tables may also be used in the discussion section to summarize related, published reports to date.
Discussion including review
A case report may help to alter the approach to patient management in the clinic or it may even stimulate original research evaluating a new treatment. Thus, the discussion must summarize the unique aspects of the case (why is the case different?) and the essential learning points/implications (how will it change management?/What further research needs to be done?). In addition to stating the differences from existing literature, the discussion should also attempt to explain these differences.
If the condition or treatment approach being focused on is sufficiently rare, reviewing all available cases published until that point is critical. This review may be presented in a table with each case described briefly. A more nuanced study might attempt to summarize the relevant demographics and clinical details of the various cases published to date in the form of a table (e.g., median age, gender distribution, and survival outcomes).
| Case Series - What is Different? | | |
There is no formal definition as to what is case series and what would be considered a retrospective cohort study. In general, a case series comprises <10 cases; beyond that, it may be feasible to apply formal statistics and may be considered a cohort study.
Both case reports and case series are descriptive studies. Case series must have similar cases and hence the inclusion must be clearly defined. The interventions must be documented in a way that is reproducible and follow-up of each individual in the report must be available. Although formal statistical analyses are usually not a part of case series, authors may attempt to summarize baseline demographic parameters using descriptive statistics.
| Abstract of a Case Report | | |
As explained earlier, a few journals do not require abstracts for case report submissions. When required, one should try to highlight the salient aspects of the case presented and the reason for the publication within the abstract word limit, which may be as short as 100–200 words. Spend time and effort in writing a good abstract as this is a portion which is usually read by the editor during manuscript screening and may have implications for whether the article progresses to the next stage of editorial processing.
| References in a Case Report | | |
One may only cite key references in a case report or series as there is limited scope for elaborate literature search. Most journals have a limit of 10–15 references for case reports; when publishing as a letter to editor (or correspondence), the allowed reference limit may be even lower (five or less for some journals).
| Choosing the Right Journal | | |
Many journals have recently stopped publishing case reports and series. This is often an attempt by journals to optimize their resources (space and reviewer time) to attain the highest possible impact. Although this is unfortunate, it is a reality which must be acknowledged. Nonetheless, the advent of online-only journals has led to more options for aspiring authors. Some journals accept case series, whereas others have “sister” journals created to accept case reports and other, less definitive, contributions to the literature.[11] It is an important exercise to study all available journals accepting case reports of the type being written. The case report must be tailored to the journal's requirements. Many journals may charge an article processing fee; author(s) must consider whether they are willing to pay and publish. Some of these may be predatory journals; authors must be wary of them and scrupulously avoid publishing in such journals as they can permanently stain the publication records of a researcher.
| Publishing the Case Report/Series as a Letter to Editor/Image Series | | |
When the matter to be conveyed is very minimal or is being published mainly for its rarity, letters to editor may be an alternate route to publish case report data. Interesting images may be published in the form of “images” series which is now a part of many journals. The flexibility of web-based publishing also allows interesting videos to be published online.
| Guidelines for Case Reports | | |
There are guidelines which help authors in the preparation and submission of case reports. The CAse REports (CARE) checklist is one such popular guideline. It provides a “checklist” and other resources for authors that can help navigate the process of writing a case report, especially when a person is doing it for the first time.[12]
| Authorship in Case Reports | | |
Although there are no separate guidelines for authorship in “case reports,” general authorship rules follow that for any manuscript. “Gift” authorship must be avoided. All authors must have contributed to the creation of the manuscript in addition to being involved in some aspect of care of the patient being reported. Authorship order should be ideally predecided based on mutual consensus.
| Conclusions | | |
A case report is a useful starting point for one's scientific writing career. There are useful online resources which describe the steps for a newbie writer.[13],[14] [Table 2] summarizes the important components to follow and understand when writing case reports. Although many frontline journals have reduced their acceptance of case reports, these publications continue to serve an essential scientific and academic role.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
| References | | |
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| 3. | Joensuu H, Roberts PJ, Sarlomo-Rikala M, Andersson LC, Tervahartiala P, Tuveson D, et al. Effect of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor STI571 in a patient with a metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumor. N Engl J Med 2001;344:1052-6. |
| 4. | Myskowski PL, Romano JF, Safai B. Kaposi's sarcoma in young homosexual men. Cutis 1982;29:31-4. |
| 5. | Baum JK, Bookstein JJ, Holtz F, Klein EW. Possible association between benign hepatomas and oral contraceptives. Lancet 1973;2:926-9. |
| 6. | Campbell K. Intensive oxygen therapy as a possible cause of retrolental fibroplasia; a clinical approach. Med J Aust 1951;2:48-50. |
| 7. | Shevell MI. The ethics of case reports. Paediatr Child Health 2004;9:83-4. |
| 8. | |
| 9. | Journals' Best Practices for Ensuring Consent for Publishing Medical Case Reports: Guidance from COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics; 2022. Available from: https://publicationethics.org/node/30816. [Last accessed on 2022 Apr 05]. |
| 10. | Stokes V, Fertleman C. Writing a case report in 10 steps. BMJ 2015;350:h2693. |
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| 12. | Riley DS, Barber MS, Kienle GS, Aronson JK, von Schoen-Angerer T, Tugwell P, et al. CARE guidelines for case reports: Explanation and elaboration document. J Clin Epidemiol 2017;89:218-35. |
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| 14. | |
[Figure 1]
[Table 1], [Table 2]
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