The case for … writing case reports

Abstract

It seems that with the emergence of the era of evidence-based medicine, the case report has become less valued in the medical literature (1). Despite this trend, 250,000 case reports were listed on MEDLINE over a five-year period beginning in 1997. Sixty-five per cent of the 250 journals on the British Medical Association's ‘Hague list’, including the British Medical Journal, The New England Journal of Medicine and the Lancet, still publish case reports (2). The nature of research evidence may be population based, but our teaching and clinical practices continue to be influenced by case-based observations. Humans thrive on stories, and even the most obscure clinical pearl can be made memorable if attached to a real event or actual person. I believe that clinicians enjoy reading case reports and find them helpful in everyday practice.