This case highlights the challenge of implementing evidence-based medicine and guidelines. Each patient is an individual and may not fit within the group that has helped define the evidence for a particular clinical procedure. In this article the authors discuss two cases of pre-operative patients that did not fit the ‘healthy’ group they were thought […]
Month: July 2009
The wonders of brain plasticity
A German girl born with a missing right hemisphere of her brain has baffled her doctors by having normal vision. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8159631.stm “[MRI] Scans on the girl showed that the retinal nerve fibres carrying visual information from the back of the eye which should have gone to the right hemisphere of the brain diverted to the […]
Orthopaedic surgeons move young woman’s heart
The BBC are carrying an interesting case report of a young woman with severe scoliosis. The deformity had shifted her mediastinum and heart to the right but, after corrective surgery, her symptoms of back pain and the heart shift have resolved. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8160522.stm “A spokeswoman for the Scoliosis Association said: ‘If scoliosis goes untreated, it will […]
Gastric outlet obstruction from a caecal volvulus, herniated through epiploic foramen: a case report
This is an unusual, and we think first reported, case of gastric outlet obstruction due to herniation of the caecum and ileum through the epiploic foramen. It demonstrates the usefulness of contrast CT in the pre-operative evaluation of such patients presenting with acute abdomen. What I particularly like is the hand drawn operative findings by […]
Lancet reports girl feeling well and living after her heart is removed.
“Follow-up of Hannah Clark—who had a donor heart grafted onto her own after suffering heart failure as an infant—after having the transplanted heart removed, now aged 16.” is reported in The Lancet Lancet Online First 14th July 2009 This case report not only explores the surgical management of heart failure but also the immunology and […]
Wii knee revisited: meniscal injury from 10-pin bowling
New sports bring new injuries but this case report describes trauma from what initially appears to be a child’s indoor computer game. Wii knee revisited: meniscal injury from 10-pin bowling […]
The earliest 1918 pandemic “influenza” case report?
King Alfonso of Spain appears to be the first case reported in the newspapers in May 1918 followed by several cases in the medical press including a case series of fifty in July 1918 in the BMJ. I’ve been looking for the earliest case reports of the flu in 1918 which seems to have first […]
What is the most highly cited case report?
One criticism against case reports is that although they are widely read they are not often cited. I’ve therefore been looking for the case report or case series that has the highest number of academic citations. At the moment the best I’ve found is: James A.R. Nicoll, David Wilkinson, Clive Holmes, Phil Steart, Hannah Markham […]