The CARE guidelines: consensus-based clinical case reporting guideline development

Abstract

A case report is a narrative that describes, for medical, scientific or educational purposes, a medical problem experienced by one or more patients. Case reports written without guidance from reporting standards are insufficiently rigorous to guide clinical practice or to inform clinical study design. Develop, disseminate and implement systematic reporting guidelines for case reports. We used a three-phase consensus process consisting of (1) premeeting literature review and interviews to generate items for the reporting guidelines, (2) a face-to-face consensus meeting to draft the reporting guidelines and (3) postmeeting feedback, review and pilot testing, followed by finalisation of the case report guidelines. This consensus process involved 27 participants and resulted in a 13-item checklist—a reporting guideline for case reports. The primary items of the checklist are title, key words, abstract, introduction, patient information, clinical findings, timeline, diagnostic assessment, therapeutic interventions, follow-up and outcomes, discussion, patient perspective and informed consent. We believe the implementation of the CARE (CAse REport) guidelines by medical journals will improve the completeness and transparency of published case reports and that the systematic aggregation of information from case reports will inform clinical study design, provide early signals of effectiveness and harms, and improve healthcare delivery.

The Current Status of Quality of Reporting in Acupuncture Treatment Case Reports: An Analysis of the Core Journal in Korea

“…The CARE guidelines were developed and translated into Korean to improve the completeness and transparency of case reports; however, they are not limited specifically to case reports of acupuncture treatment [1]. Recently, case reports involving traditional Chinese medicine (CARC) were developed based on a review of the general reporting quality of those reports, and through internal discussion by experts [22].…”

“…Case reports are detailed narratives that describe a medical problem experienced by one or more patients for the purpose of medicine, science, or education [1]. They are considered useful for recognizing new diseases and identifying adverse events and beneficial effects associated with new treatments [2].…”

“…The “CAse REport (CARE) guidelines” were proposed to facilitate systematic reporting of information in case reports [1]. It is widely expected that implementation of the CARE guidelines will improve the completeness and transparency of case reporting [1].…”

“…It is widely expected that implementation of the CARE guidelines will improve the completeness and transparency of case reporting [1]. Guidelines for reporting adverse events of acupuncture were proposed in 2004, but there was no specific guideline for case reports about acupuncture treatment [6].…”

First-Hand Experience of Severe Dysphagia Following Brainstem Stroke: Two Qualitative Cases

“…The CARE Case Report Guideline [20] was used to increase the accuracy and transparency of the present case report study, which forms one of four sub-studies of a mixed-methods investigation regarding difficulties with swallowing and eating following acquired brain injury (ABI). The first of these studies was a prospective randomised controlled trial (RCT) of the assessment of facial-oral tract therapy versus fibreoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing during inpatient neurorehabilitation; we compared the risk of aspiration pneumonia in patients with ABI [21] and the time to initiation of oral intake and recovery of total oral intake prior to discharge [22].…”