{"id":4505,"date":"2016-09-27T09:00:01","date_gmt":"2016-09-27T03:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/?p=3707"},"modified":"2021-09-30T18:05:13","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T12:05:13","slug":"ten-steps-to-writing-an-effective-case-report-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/ten-steps-to-writing-an-effective-case-report-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Steps to Writing an Effective Case Report (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span>In our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/ten-steps-to-writing-an-effective-case-report-part-1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">previous article<\/a>, we discussed the first 5 steps in writing an effective\u00a0Case Report. Here,\u00a0let us look at the remaining 5 steps.<\/p>\n<h2>Step 6:\u00a0Deciding the Contents of the Case Report<\/h2>\n<p>Summarize the information that you have gathered:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A brief history and important and relevant positive and negative findings with details of investigations<\/li>\n<li>Treatment<\/li>\n<li>The condition of the patient after treatment<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Example,<\/p>\n<p>A common form of presentation is to divide the content into a textbook style of presentation without the headings\u2014history, examination, investigation, treatment, and outcome in separate paragraphs.<\/p>\n<h2>Step 7:\u00a0Writing the Introduction<\/h2>\n<p>Follow the rule of brevity!<\/p>\n<p>State the issue and its significance. You can also cite some articles that have already referred to this problem.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Tip 1!<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Do not forget to mention how rare the condition is.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Step 8:\u00a0Patient Data and Case Description<\/h2>\n<p>Since a Case Report is usually about a single or a group of patients, this section plays a very important role.\u00a0Patient consent is a very crucial point and should compulsorily be mentioned.\u00a0Obtaining consent from the patient is not only a good medical practice but also mandatory for most journals, such as BMJ (which has its own consent form on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmj.com\/about-bmj\/resources-authors\/forms-policies-and-checklists\/patient-confidentiality\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" class=\"broken_link\">journal\u2019s website<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>The case is usually described in chronological order.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Tip 2!<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Provide the results of the relevant examinations and laboratory tests, usually only those with positive results.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"om-dqx4acd1ednpm2dtmovz-holder\"><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.opmnstr.com\/app\/js\/api.min.js\" data-campaign=\"dqx4acd1ednpm2dtmovz\" data-user=\"41855\" async><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Step 9:\u00a0Discussion and Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>These sections are written differently from those in other types of research articles.<\/p>\n<p>Proceed point-by-point when writing the Discussion:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First, explain the objective of reporting the case.<\/li>\n<li>Describe what others have written before about the condition or any related feature.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Note!<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong> Be generous in quoting literature but do not include unnecessary details.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The most important point to note is that your reviewers want proof of the rarity of the condition and the scientific explanations for it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Example,<\/p>\n<p>Answer these questions in the Discussion section:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Describe the cause of the condition or why a particular procedure or feature was chosen.<\/li>\n<li>How did it influence the outcome?<\/li>\n<li>How does it differ from usual and what are your recommendations?<\/li>\n<li>Are there any lessons to be learnt?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/academic-writing-in-science-overview\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Conclusion<\/a> is not always necessary in a Case Report, but if it is, summarize in a few sentences.<\/p>\n<h2>Step 10:\u00a0References and Other Formatting<\/h2>\n<p>The reference section is extremely important. Adhere to the style (Vancouver, Harvard, etc.) that your journal requires. Also, as mentioned previously, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/publication-support-services\/manuscript-formatting.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">formatting<\/a> will affect the acceptance of your report to a great extent. Therefore, take care of all <a href=\"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/instructions-authors-beginners-part-1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">formatting instructions<\/a> related to\u00a0margins, spacing, figure numbering, and the type of English.<\/p>\n<h2>The Stages in Writing a Case Report Can be Summarized as Follows:<\/h2>\n<h3>Introduction<\/h3>\n<p>Content should be brief and less than 3 paragraphs:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>State the purpose of the case report<\/li>\n<li>Provide background information and pertinent definitions<\/li>\n<li>Introduce the patient\u2019s case<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Patient\u2019s Case Presentation<\/h3>\n<p>Ensure that the patient&#8217;s case presentation provides enough detail for the reader to establish the case\u2019s validity:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Patient demographics (age, sex, height, weight, etc.)\u2014avoid patient identifiers (date of birth, initials)<\/li>\n<li>Patient\u2019s complaints<\/li>\n<li>Patient\u2019s present illness and medical\/family\/social\/medication history before admission<\/li>\n<li>Each drug\u2019s name, strength, dosage form, route, and dates of administration<\/li>\n<li>The completed diagnostic procedures that are pertinent and support the case and their salient results.<\/li>\n<li>Photographs of histopathology, roentgenograms, electrocardiograms, skin manifestations, or anatomy<\/li>\n<li>Patient consent and adherence to institutional guidelines<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Discussion<\/h3>\n<p>Justify the uniqueness of the case in this section:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Compare and contrast the nuances of the case report with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"127\" title=\"Literature Review\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">literature review<\/a><\/li>\n<li>List the limitations of the case report and describe their relevance<\/li>\n<li>Confirm the accuracy of the descriptive patient case report<\/li>\n<li>Summarize the salient features of the case report<\/li>\n<li>Draw recommendations and conclusions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Conclusion<\/h3>\n<p>This section should be brief and not exceed one paragraph:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Provide a justified conclusion<\/li>\n<li>Provide evidence-based recommendations<\/li>\n<li>List opportunities for research<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We hope\u00a0you find\u00a0the information\u00a0valuable while writing your Case Report. Comment below and let us know your thoughts.<\/p>\n<div style=\"display:flex; gap:10px;justify-content:\" class=\"wps-pgfw-pdf-generate-icon__wrapper-frontend\">\n\t\t<a  href=\"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4505?action=genpdf&amp;id=4505\" class=\"pgfw-single-pdf-download-button\" ><img data-src=\"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-generator-for-wp\/admin\/src\/images\/PDF_Tray.svg\" title=\"Generate PDF\" style=\"width:auto; height:45px;\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\"><\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\ufeffIn our\u00a0previous article, we discussed the first 5 steps in writing an effective\u00a0Case Report. Here,\u00a0let&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[747,2],"tags":[1450],"ppma_author":[1897],"class_list":["post-4505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-content-structure","category-academic-writing","tag-drafting-case-reports"],"better_featured_image":null,"acf":{"faq_main_heading":"","faq_heading_one":"","faq_heading_two":"","faq_heading_three":"","faq_heading_four":"","faq_heading_five":"","faq_heading_six":"","faq_description_one":"","faq_description_two":"","faq_description_three":"","faq_description_four":"","faq_description_five":"","faq_description_six":""},"views":1730,"single_webinar_page_date":null,"single_webinar_page_time":null,"session_agenda":null,"who_should_attend_this_session":null,"about_the_speaker_field":null,"co-webinar-sec":null,"co_webinar_sec_one":null,"speaker-name":null,"webinar-date":null,"webinar-time":null,"webinar-s-image":null,"custum_webinar_category":null,"authors":[{"term_id":1897,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"admin","display_name":"Enago Academy","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d65d60a21040c13377a06062d1e6b7cc8c2864ea1bdab2ddb791840dabc77cc?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4505\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4505"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=4505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}