Quality assessment of case reports in high-impact urology journals using SCARE guideline

The usefulness of case reports is dependent on the complete, consistent, and rigorous reporting of these cases. In order to provide a standard guideline for reporting surgical case reports, the SCARE (Surgical CAse REport) guidelines were developed in 2016. The present study evaluated the completeness and transparency of published case reports in high-impact urology journals based on the SCARE guideline.

This cross-sectional study was performed on 100 case reports published in Urology, Urology Journal, BMC Urology, and Urology Case Reports journal. Two independent reviewers performed the scoring using the last version of SCARE statement. Each of the 34 items of SCARE guideline were classified as "yes" if the item was reported in the case report text. The SCARE items were classified as "no" when the authors of case reports had not reported that item or could not tell something about reporting the item. Completeness of reporting (COR) score was calculated for each case report. COR score (%) is defined as ["yes" answers/("yes" answers + "no" answers)] × 100 for each case report.

The mean COR score for all the assessed case reports was 49%, ranging from 21% to 79%. Topics with the highest mean COR score were introduction (77% ± 42%), additional information (75% ± 43%), patient information (65% ± 19%), and abstract (66% ± 24%). In contrast, topics with the lowest mean COR were patient perspective (1% ± 10%) and keywords (3% ± 17%).

The present study showed that case reports published in urology journals suffer from insufficient reporting. SCARE or CARE guidelines can provide a framework for assessing the reporting quality of case reports before publication. Nevertheless, further studies are highly recommended to better evaluate the efficacy of these guidelines' endorsement on the quality of case reports published in urology journals.