A case report is a form of medical communication. It
is arguably the oldest and basic type of scientific
publication,[1] dating from 17th century [2] and has since
become a key element of medical literature.[3] Several
definitions have been used to describe this genre, but
a very encompassing definition by Carey states that:
"A case report is the publication in the medical scientific
literature of a single clinical observation whose principal
purpose is to generate hypotheses regarding human
disease or provide insight into clinical practice".[4]Case reports allow for anecdotal sharing of personal
clinical experiences,[1] which draw attention to crucial
observations, uncommon medical occurrences, the
mechanisms underlying such conditions, unanticipated
adverse effects or benefits of therapeutic measures
and novel skills.[5] They often contain one main message,
stimulate the reader's interest, and highlight the
"discovery aspect"of medical knowledge.[4,6]Case reports witnessed gradual decline of regard and
interest from scientific community of publishers and
researchers alike in the second half of the 20th century,
with increased emphasis on evidence based medicine.[4,7]
Studies examining the frequency with which some top
journals publish this type of genre indicated a
downward trend.[2,4,6,8,9] Observed reasons include: The
believe that case reports provide a lower quality of
evidence.[1,8,10]; Publishers' obsession with "Impact
Factor" (A factor of how many times published
articles are cited) - and studies have shown that case
reports get much less citations.[4,6,8] and lastly some
institutions attach little or no academic value to
published case reports with regards to promotion for
academicians[5,11-13] causing reduced enthusiasm about
writing case reports compared to other types of
research works.Notwithstanding the perceived and actual weaknesses
of case reports in terms of generalizability of findings
and reproducibility of methods, ability to adduce
causality et cetera,[14] there are still numerous benefits,
importance and uniqueness of case reports which
makes them very relevant in scientific literature.They can help with the discovery and reporting of
novel health occurrences which may alert readers to
similar cases,[3,14-16] hypothesis formulation,[1,4,6,8,14,15]
presentation of in-depth narrative studies,[14] study of
rare disorders which other study designs like
randomized control trials are not ideally suited due to
limited number of cases,[4,8,14] changing and/or
improving clinical practice,[6,17] resolving ethical
constraints that may have disallowed experimental
studies,[14] contributing to clinical or medical learning
and continuing medical education by presenting day-to-day clinical practice, clinicians' diagnostic reasoning,
disease management, and follow-up of cases.[6,8,14-16]
Other reported advantages of writing case reports are:
Relatively low cost of research and faster publication
time,[14] good opportunity for young researchers to
learn and hone their skills for scientific writing,[1,4,14,15,18]
a source of educational entertainment for some readers
and a means of satisfaction for the author.[14,16]It is interesting to note that following the decline in its
acceptance, there is currently a gradual rise in the
number of published case reports.[4,7] Several journals
are becoming increasingly vocal on their support for
more case reports to be published, believing they are
integral to medical literature.[4,6,8]Some journals are now
even solely dedicated to this unique style of scientific
communication.[4]Against this background, it is noteworthy that five
interesting case reports/case series are featured in this
issue of Annals of Ibadan Postgraduate Medicine (AIPM).
Situated in a developing country and hosted in a
foremost academic health training institution in the
country, a significant part of the journal's readership,
notably trainee specialist doctors among others will
find this edition valuable. Perhaps, clinicians would
now begin to find encouragement to write and submit
interesting, novel and unique case reports that could
add to the body of knowledge, improve clinical
practice, provide a clear message and provoke further
larger studies that are considered as evidence-based.