RESURRECTION OF THE CASE REPORT
2011
Typically, a case report intends to share a surgeon’s
anecdotal experience of an unusualpresentation of a disease or an unusual outcome or
complication of treatment. Apart from its interesting and entertaining value, case reports
aim to enrich the diagnosticand management skills of the surgeon. However, an increasing
number of orthopaedicjournals have now significantly reduced the acceptance rate for case
reports andnumerous others have adopted the policy of not publishing case reports. Apart
fromadding to the workload of reviewers and editors who already have to deal with
thesoaring number of online submission of original articles, case reports have been deemed
as lacking scientific merit and very low on the evidence pyramid.
So why a journal solely dedicated to case reports? First, a case report or a technicalnote
is a perfect opportunity for orthopaedic residents or consultants who are not wellversed
with medical writing to take their first step towards research and publication. The editors
believe that this first, relatively simple step of publishing a case report ortechnical
note will go on to encourage further interest in research and publication.Second, case
reports although considered low on the evidence pyramid act as instruments for hypothesis
generation which may point towards a direction for furtherresearch. Third, a rare disease
presentation or rare outcomes of treatment act as anexception to the generally accepted
rules and norms which will help to broaden theperspective of surgeons. Finally, technical
notes will help provide effect solutions tocommon problems encountered during diagnosis and
management of a disease.
Another aspect of Case reports is their individualism. Most literature is a collective
workof grouping together of cases based on specific criterias and then describing
amanagement strategy and results for that particular group of cases. Every case may not
fulfil the criteria or may have additional compounding factors and thus the managementand
results both may vary from case to case. Case reports essentially describe management
strategies for such cases which deviate significantly from the norm and cannot be grouped
together. Case Reports represent a watershed between Evidence based Orthopaedics and
Practise Based Orthopaedics. Many clinical scenarios do not have enough literature to
answer specific questions and many results from literature do not yield perfect conclusions
applicable to particular clinical scenarios.
The Journal of Orthopaedic Case Reports (JOCR) initiated by the Indian Orthopaedic Research
Group (IORG) aims to promote collaboration between Evidence and PractiseBased Orthopaedics.
Case reports published in this Journal will provide a commonground where both Literature
review and Practical experience will be seen to play abalanced role to decide on effective
and optimal treatment of the patient. We feel that this description of clinical scenarios
and related literature will also synthesise a strong message which will help in generating
hypothesis. The Journal will provide a platform for orthopaedic surgeons to publish case
reports and technical notes which will convey a relevant and useful clinical message. Apart
from single case reports, JOCR also aims to publish peer-reviewed case series and technical
notes. The editors hope that JOCR will contribute to quality, peer-reviewed orthopaedic
literature and achieve all its goal sover the coming years.
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