The CARE reporting guideline for writing clinical case report articles

The CARE reporting guideline helps authors write clinical case report articles that can be understood and used by a wide audience. This page summarises CARE and how it will help you write. Each guideline item links to more information, examples, and relevant training.

Journals endorsing CARE 400+

CARE: CAse REport

Version: CARE 2013 v1.1. This is the latest version ✅

How to use this reporting guideline

You can use reporting guidelines throughout your research process.

• When writing: Consider using a writing guide to draft your manuscript or protocol.
• After writing: Complete a checklist and include it with your journal submission.
• To learn: Consult the guidance whenever you need it.

However you use CARE, please cite it.

Applicability criteria

Use CARE for writing case reports, i.e., for describing a medical problem experienced by one or more patients for medical, scientific or educational purposes.

You can also use CARE for:

• writing a fictional clinical case study for educational purposes,
• reviewing the reporting of a case report, but not for appraising its quality

Do not use CARE for:

• writing an article about surgical cases, use SCARE instead.

Summary of guidance

Although you should describe all items below, you can decide how to order and prioritize items most relevant to your study, findings, context, and readership whilst keeping your writing concise. You can read how CARE was developed in the FAQs.

Item name	What to write
Sections
1. Title	The area of focus and “case report” should appear in the title.
2. Keywords	The key elements of this case in 2–5 words.
3. Abstract	3a – Introduction: What does this case add? 3b – Case presentation: The main symptoms of the patient(s). The main clinical findings. The main diagnoses and interventions. The main outcomes. 3c – Conclusion: What are the main “take-away” lessons from this case?
4. Introduction	Brief background summary of the case referencing the relevant medical literature.
5a. Patient information	5a – Demographic information of the patient (age, gender, ethnicity, occupation). 5b – Main symptoms of the patient (chief complaint). 5c – Medical, family, and psychosocial history—including lifestyle and genetic information whenever possible, details about relevant comorbidities, and past interv…
6. Clinical findings	Describe the relevant physical examination (PE) findings.
7. Timeline	Depict important date and times in this case (table or figure).
8. Diagnostic assessment	8a – Diagnostic methods (e.g., physical examination, laboratory testing, imaging, questionnaires) 8b – Diagnostic challenges (e.g., financial, language, or cultural) 8c – Diagnostic reasoning including other diagnoses considered 8d – Prognostic characteristics (e.g., staging) where applicable.
9. Therapeutic Intervention	9a – Types of intervention (e.g., pharmacologic, surgical, preventive, self-care) 9b – Administration (e.g., dosage, strength, duration) 9c – Changes in intervention (with rationale).
10. Follow up and outcomes	10a – Clinician and patient-assessed outcomes 10b – Important follow-up test results (positive and negative) 10c – Intervention adherence and tolerability (and how this was assessed) 10d – Adverse and unanticipated events.
11. Discussion	Discussion (including conclusion): 11a – Strengths and limitations of the management of this case 11b – Relevant medical literature 11c – Rationale for conclusions (including assessment of cause and effect) 11d – Main “take-away” lessons of this case report.
12. Patient perspective	When appropriate patients should share their perspectives on the treatments they received.
13. Informed consent	Did the patient give informed consent? Please provide if requested.

We like publishing transparent research because we think it’s more likely to be used and cited. That’s why we ask authors to use reporting guidelines.

Robin Lavery

Editor, International Journal of World Medicine

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