Some cases stay with you.
Not always because they are rare. Sometimes because they are clear. Sometimes because they are messy. Sometimes because they remind you that real clinical medicine does not always behave like a board exam question.
That is where case reports matter.
A good case report does not need to be dramatic. It needs to be useful. It should help another clinician, trainee, researcher, or care team understand something better than they did before.
At Cureus, we publish case reports and case series, along with original research, reviews, technical reports, and editorials. A case report or case series presents details from real patient cases in medical or clinical practice.
Here is how to turn a clinical lesson into a case report worth reading.
Before writing, answer one question:
What should another clinician learn from this case?
That lesson is the center of the article.
The point is not to prove too much. A case report is not a randomized trial. It should not pretend to be one.
The point is to describe one clinical experience clearly, place it in context, and explain why it matters.
If this is your first case report, do not try to cowboy the whole thing alone.
Cureus recommends that first-time and junior authors work with an experienced senior author who can lead the author group, including for case reports.
A strong senior author can help you decide whether the case is appropriate, what the clinical takeaway should be, whether consent or institutional requirements apply, and how to avoid overstating the conclusion.
That is not bureaucracy. That is how a case becomes publishable.
Case reports involve real patients, so ethics comes first.
If you are using patient data, make sure informed consent has been obtained. Cureus guidance states that authors should obtain patient consent for publication of case reports and anonymize patient details unless explicit written consent has been obtained.
Removing the patient’s name is not enough. Dates, images, location, workplace, unusual timelines, and combinations of clinical facts can still make someone identifiable.
Before drafting too far, confirm:
If this part feels annoying, good. It should. Patient privacy is not a formatting detail.
A case report should be easy to read because clinical time is limited.
A useful structure usually includes:
The CARE case report checklist includes core elements such as title, keywords, abstract, patient information, clinical findings, timeline, diagnostic assessment, intervention, follow-up and outcomes, discussion, patient perspective, and informed consent.
The reader should be able to follow:
What happened?
What did the team consider?
What was done?
What was the outcome?
What should we learn?
That is the whole job.
Your title should be specific, searchable, and honest.
Cureus recommends concise, informative titles that use keywords reflecting the main findings while avoiding jargon, abbreviations, and unnecessary words.
Weak title:
An Interesting Case of Abdominal Pain
Better title:
Diagnostic Delay in [Condition] Presenting With Abdominal Pain: A Case Report
The better title tells readers what the case is about. It also gives search engines and indexing systems something useful to work with.
No mystery titles. No vague drama. Tell clinicians what they are getting.
The abstract may be the only thing someone reads before deciding whether the full article is worth their time.
For a case report, the abstract should answer:
Cureus recommends writing the abstract last and using it to briefly summarize the article, including background, objective, methods, results, and conclusion when relevant to the article type.
Do not oversell. One case can suggest, illustrate, warn, or clarify. That is enough.
The case presentation is the heart of the report.
Include the details another clinician needs:
Cut what does not help the reader understand the clinical lesson.
A case report is not a chart dump. It is a teaching document.
The discussion is where the case becomes useful.
This is where you connect the case to existing literature, explain the clinical relevance, and acknowledge the limits of what one case can show.
Cureus writing guidance recommends comparing findings with previous studies, addressing limitations, and explaining the clinical or scientific impact of the work.
A strong discussion should:
The best case reports do not shout. They clarify.
Keywords help the right readers find the article.
Cureus requires authors to add five to 10 keywords when submitting and recommends using keywords naturally in the title, abstract, subheadings, and article text.
Choose terms related to the diagnosis, presentation, symptom, intervention, specialty, and article type.
Think about the clinician who may need this case later. What would they search?
Before submission, make sure the manuscript is clear, ethical, and complete.
Cureus recommends checking grammar and clarity, making sure figures and tables are labeled correctly, double-checking references, and getting feedback from co-authors and colleagues before submission.
Use this final check:
If yes, you are not just submitting a case. You are sharing a clinical lesson.
And that is the point.
If a case taught your team something, it may teach someone else too.