Case Reports in the Medical Literature

"Dear Doctor: Your case report is well written and interesting; it illustrates the many facets of an important entity. We donotfind it acceptable for publication." Blasphemy! The single-case method is a venerable teaching technique, which closely approximates real medical practice. Why, then, do many prospective authors receive some version of the above letter? The difficulty may be a misunderstanding of criteria for acceptability of such papers.The Journalvery strongly endorses the concept of publishing case reports. In fact, five of 51 recently collectedLandmark Articles in Medicine¹deal with single cases. Greenwalt,²commenting on one of those landmark cases, has said that "carefully documented study of an unusual patient represents an experiment of nature that may be the opportunity to explain a long-recorded but unexplained clinical mystery." In this issue ofThe Journalappear a CASE REPORT and accompanying editorial³,⁴that serve to clarify