The alarmingly labelled ‘three-parent IVF’ treatment has been discussed in the media over the last week following the publication of research in Nature by researchers from Newcastle. (1) The technique they studied used abnormally fertilised embryos (1 or 3 pronuclear zygotes that are not usually used in IVF) to see if the pronuclei could be […]
Latest articles
Man with vCJD dies after a long and public illness
Jonathan Simms from Belfast has died of variant CJD. He had survived 10 years with the disease and his case has been widely discussed in the media. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-12667709 Initially, doctors thought he had multiple sclerosis. But Jonathan’s illness was later confirmed as vCJD. He was given just months to live. After a court battle, the […]
Lung protective strategy and prone ventilation resulting in successful outcome in a patient with ARDS due to H1N1
Imagine having to watch a common cold turning into a violent pneumonia in your 3 year old child and having to see him/her go under the ventilator for nearly a month. Imagine the relief having him/her back intact after the ordeal! This case report depicts one such incident that is best described as one of […]
Unmasking the truth
Every case report should put the patient first ( brevity is always appreciated here as well) and also very importantly have a title that attracts the audience without giving away the suspense (in fact the audience is more often attracted by the suspense in the title). In this case the suspense in the title is […]
Spontaneous regression in advanced non-small cell lung cancer
Spontaneous resolution of any malignancy is a cause for documentation and celebration every time it happens particularly for its rarity of occurrence. Gladwish, Clarke and Bezjak have done it commendably as well as raised the intriguing question as to why this happens ( or doesn’t more often).They have looked at multiple mechanisms that may have […]
Searching whilst feeding
Had one of those yes-this-is-how-it-could-work moments recently. I was sat at the back of a departmental lunchtime meeting (in Turo) recently eating a cake and clocking up some CPD. There was a presentation on ‘refeeding syndrome’ and I managed to search BMJ Case Reports for ‘refeeding syndrome’ on my recently acquired smartphone and found several […]
POEMS syndrome – a unique presentation of a rare paraneoplastic syndrome
This is an interesting story of a 40 year old man who developed severe hip pain after tripping on the pavement. From the opening description one would suspect a pathological fracture and the authors proceed to meticulously describe the pathology behind the fracture. Interestingly in this case the pathology was not just confined to the […]
A very public neurosurgery case report
An account of the early management, prompt surgical intervention and subsequent care of a person with severe trauma from a bullet wound to the head is unfolding in the world’s press. The news of the tragic shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the killing and injury of several others by a gunman in Arizona has […]
360 degree case reports – e.g. rheumatoid arthritis
I highly recommend reading a recent case report published in the BMJ that talks about rheumatoid arthritis from the perspectives of the patient, her clinician and the National Rheumatoid Society that she represents. (1) It is an historic account of her disease from presentation, how treatments have changed over the last 20 years, and the […]
Torsades de Pointes Associated with Methadone and Voriconazole
The authors describe in detail the presentation of this patient with Torsades de Pointes tachycardia. They go on to argue the case that the interaction of methadone and voriconazole led to the presentation. An excellent case with good ECG recordings. Dean Jenkins Editor at Large Torsades de Pointes Associated with Methadone and Voriconazole […]