The SCARE 2020 Guideline: Updating Consensus Surgical CAse REport (SCARE) Guidelines

Area of Science:

• Surgical reporting standards
• Medical guideline development
• Academic publishing

Background:

• The original SCARE Guidelines (2016, updated 2018) provide a framework for reporting surgical case reports.
• Endorsed by authors, editors, and reviewers to enhance transparency and robustness.
• Guidelines require updates to maintain high reporting quality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To update and improve the SCARE Guidelines through a rigorous consensus process.
• To ensure surgical case reports are reported with maximal transparency and accuracy.
• To provide a current and effective checklist for surgical case reporting.

Main Methods:

• A DELPHI consensus exercise was employed for guideline revision.
• Expert participants included members of the previous DELPHI group and editorial board members/peer reviewers of the International Journal of Surgery Case Reports.
• An online survey assessed expert agreement with proposed checklist modifications.

Main Results:

• 54 surgical experts participated, with 98% completion rate.
• All modified SCARE items achieved over 70% agreement (scores 7-9).
• Expert feedback was integrated into the new 2020 SCARE Guideline.

Conclusions:

• An updated and improved SCARE Checklist has been developed.
• The DELPHI consensus exercise successfully refined the reporting guidelines.
• The revised checklist aims to further advance the quality of surgical case report publication.