Study Design
Case report study design
What is case report?
It is one of the descriptive studies, in which the main objective of the research is to describe the main features of the case. It includes a summary of the disease, such as the presentation signs, symptoms, diagnostic studies, treatment course and outcome.
Case reports often describe one or more of the following
Unique cases that cannot be explained by known diseases or syndromes.
Cases that show an important variation of a disease or condition.
Cases that show unexpected events that may yield new or useful information.
Cases in which one patient has two or more unexpected diseasesor disorders.
Case reports are considered the lowest level of evidence, but they are also the first line of evidence, because they are where new issues and ideas emerge. Therefore, they form the base of our pyramid.
Advantages:
Can help in the identification of new trends or diseases.
Can help detect new drug side effects and potential uses (adverse or beneficial).
Educational way of sharing lessons learned.
Identifies rare manifestations of a disease.
Easy to be written by a medical student.
Disadvantages:
Cases may not be generalizable.
Not based on systematic studies.
Causes or associations may have other explanations.
emphasizing the bizarre or focusing on misleading elements.