A guide to writing a case report of an osteopathic patient

4 M's to make sense of evidence – Avoiding the propagation of mistakes, misinterpretation, misrepresentation and misinformation

“…Case reports and case series usually describe an interesting, rare or an unusual evolution of a disease of one individual or few individuals. They are used to generate an in-depth investigation and understanding of a single patient in their real-world context [28,29]. This research design is a suitable strategy to investigate "how" and "why"-questions about a contemporary intervention and complex issues [30].…”

“…Indeed, it can be used to generate hypotheses to be subsequently tested by other types of research design such as cohort studies or control randomized trials [33,34], to detect novelties [34], to warn a profession of potential complications of an intervention [35]. These reports can also promote the sharing of clinical expertise, help clinicians to solve difficult clinical problems and provide valuable teaching opportunities [29,34,35]. Finally, case report can give the patient the opportunity to share their perspective.…”

“…It includes elements of the patient case history, examination, accurate descriptions of the interventions, objective, reliable and valid measures and ongoing management with the aim of informing clinical practice. Several professions have documented how to use the CARE checklist in the context of their own discipline, including osteopathy [29]. Osteopathy is no exception to the trend of writing case reports; about one third of all osteopathic publications between 1980 and 2018 about the effect of OMT are case reports [38].…”

Continuing debates about models of practice

“…One way that we could illustrate practice as it is and as it changes is by way of disseminating case reports. Vaughan and Fleischmann have provided us with an excellent masterclass addressing the practical tasks and issues involved in writing a case report [9]. I commend this paper to you and very much hope that it stimulates colleagues to submit case reports to the International Journal of Osteopathic Medicine.…”