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Why do case reports matter?
Cardiovascular Revascularization Medicine 18 (2017) S1
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Cardiovascular Revascularization Medicine
Editorial
Why do case reports matter? This special supplement portrays a series of case reports on various topics, including complex coronary interventions, structural heart procedures, management of cardiogenic shock, and hemodynamic support. Case reports are considered to be at the bottom of the hierarchical ladder of study design. However, they inspire curiosity and form an important aspect of research. Case reports can give a new message or discovery, which can be in the form of presentation, clinical management, outcome, complication, or unusual presentation of common diseases, and they can highlight extremely unusual and novel findings. Despite the emphasis on randomized clinical trials, evidenced-based medicine, systemic reviews, and meta-analyses, case reports continue to provide novel and exceptional knowledge in medical education, especially for describing new procedural techniques in interventional cardiology. Reporting cases has an additive value that can be missed or go undetected in clinical trials. Case reports can emphasize technical aspects of intervention and equipment in a way that is similar to a live case or a case presentation in a conference. This is a very important resource that can be of a great help when a reader might encounter a similar challenging case. In the continuing era of transition from print to online journal manuscripts, case reports allow the presentation of online videos that illustrate and simplify the understanding of complicated procedures. Rare adverse events or unique treatments can be published through case reports and inspire further research and the generation of case series and mini-reviews that contribute important information, which might otherwise not be gathered without case report publication.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.carrev.2017.08.010 1553-8389/© 2017 Published by Elsevier Inc.
In addition to their medical contribution to literature, case reports are also beneficial for authors. For beginners, a case report can provide a learning opportunity in the practice of scientific writing and an opportunity to get chief authorship. Case reports have limitations as well. Authors tend to report an unusual treatment or technique that led to success and not the cases that failed and led to a deleterious event (known as outcome reporting bias). Additionally, an inexperienced operator trying to mimic a method or implementing the technique in a different clinical case could be harmful. In summary, case reports provide important and detailed information for educational purposes and clinical work, which is often lost in larger studies, especially in interventional cardiology, adding an important aspect of the procedure techniques. I am sure this special edition reports of various complex cases will prove helpful for the reader/ operator in treating patients.
Itsik Ben-Dor Section of Interventional Cardiology, MedStar Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC E-mail address: [email protected]
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Cardiovascular Revascularization Medicine
Editorial
Why do case reports matter? This special supplement portrays a series of case reports on various topics, including complex coronary interventions, structural heart procedures, management of cardiogenic shock, and hemodynamic support. Case reports are considered to be at the bottom of the hierarchical ladder of study design. However, they inspire curiosity and form an important aspect of research. Case reports can give a new message or discovery, which can be in the form of presentation, clinical management, outcome, complication, or unusual presentation of common diseases, and they can highlight extremely unusual and novel findings. Despite the emphasis on randomized clinical trials, evidenced-based medicine, systemic reviews, and meta-analyses, case reports continue to provide novel and exceptional knowledge in medical education, especially for describing new procedural techniques in interventional cardiology. Reporting cases has an additive value that can be missed or go undetected in clinical trials. Case reports can emphasize technical aspects of intervention and equipment in a way that is similar to a live case or a case presentation in a conference. This is a very important resource that can be of a great help when a reader might encounter a similar challenging case. In the continuing era of transition from print to online journal manuscripts, case reports allow the presentation of online videos that illustrate and simplify the understanding of complicated procedures. Rare adverse events or unique treatments can be published through case reports and inspire further research and the generation of case series and mini-reviews that contribute important information, which might otherwise not be gathered without case report publication.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.carrev.2017.08.010 1553-8389/© 2017 Published by Elsevier Inc.
In addition to their medical contribution to literature, case reports are also beneficial for authors. For beginners, a case report can provide a learning opportunity in the practice of scientific writing and an opportunity to get chief authorship. Case reports have limitations as well. Authors tend to report an unusual treatment or technique that led to success and not the cases that failed and led to a deleterious event (known as outcome reporting bias). Additionally, an inexperienced operator trying to mimic a method or implementing the technique in a different clinical case could be harmful. In summary, case reports provide important and detailed information for educational purposes and clinical work, which is often lost in larger studies, especially in interventional cardiology, adding an important aspect of the procedure techniques. I am sure this special edition reports of various complex cases will prove helpful for the reader/ operator in treating patients.
Itsik Ben-Dor Section of Interventional Cardiology, MedStar Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC E-mail address: [email protected]