Submissions

Case Reports

Brief descriptions of a previously undocumented disease process, a unique unreported manifestation or treatment of a known disease process, or unique unreported complications of treatment regimens.

The manuscript should contain English abstract, a maximum of 250 words, but a structured abstract is not required. The main text should include titles or related topics to further organize the content. The manuscript could be of up to 3000 words (excluding references and abstract) and could be supported with up to 40 references. Care should be taken to ensure that the number of figures or tables does not exceed 5-6 each.

General Principles

The text of case report articles should be divided into Introduction, Case, Discussion and/or Conclusion and References sections. This structure is not an arbitrary publication format but a reflection of the process of scientific discovery. Articles often need subheadings within these sections to further organize their content. Other types of articles, such as meta-analyses, may require different formats, while narrative reviews, and editorials may have less structured or unstructured formats.

Electronic formats have created opportunities for adding details or sections, layering information, cross-linking, or extracting portions of articles in electronic versions. Supplementary electronic-only material should be submitted and sent for peer review simultaneously with the primary manuscript.

Sections

Title

The title should beclear, informative, and representative of the content. Please provide a short title not exceeding 40 characters to be placed at the top of the inside pages when your work is accepted for publication. English Title with only first word capitalized, other words except proper nouns in lowercase according to sentence order.

The title of the article should not be written in all capital letters. The capital of the title should start with upper case letter and the following words should be written in lowercase, including conjunctions (eg, (e.g., and, but, both, or, either, neither, nor, besides, however, nevertheless, otherwise, so, therefore, still, yet, though etc.). No abbreviations or acronyms should be used within the titles. Care should be taken not to use abbreviations in the title and keywords.

Abstract

Case Reports don't require structured abstracts. The abstract should provide the context or background for the study and should state the study's purpose, basic procedures (selection of the case, settings, main findings, and their clinical significance and principal conclusions. It should emphasize new and important aspects of the study or observations, note important limitations, and not overinterpret findings. Please, do not cite figures, tables or references in the abstract.

Because abstracts are the only substantive portion of the article indexed in many electronic databases, and the only portion many readers read, authors need to ensure that they accurately reflect the content of the article. All the articles submitted to the journal require to include abstract in English. Abstracts of original articles should not exceed 250 words.

Keywords

Four to six words or determinative groups of words should be written below the abstract. Abbreviations should not be used as keywords. Keywords in English should be chosen from MESH (Medical Subject Headings http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh) index. Abbreviations cannot be used as keywords, but instead they should be written explicitly. Letters that do not exist in Latin alphabet (e.g. alpha, beta, delta etc.) should be used with their pronunciation.

Examples; carbon monoxide, firearms, sexual abuse, oral mucosa

Introduction

Provide a context or background for the study (that is, the nature of the problem and its significance). State the specific purpose of the case or observation. Cite only directly pertinent references, and do not include data or conclusions from the work being reported. The introduction should clarify the purpose and focus of the report, and describe importance of clinical population. It should clarify the significance of the case for its relevant field of specialty. It should describe limitations of current practice and research that this case will address.

Case Presentation

The guiding principle of the case section should be clarity about how and why a study was done in a particular way.

If applicable;

• The Case description section should describe the clinical setting.
• It shoud identifiy presenting problem and patient/family background.
• It should report methods of assessment, relevant diagnosis, and baseline data pertaining to the outcome (include standardized measures and references as relevant).
• It shoud should describe conceptualization of case and treatment plan including relevant theory and models of intervention.
• It shoud document treatment course and relevant process (include number of sessions, duration of treatment, and relevant clinical process such as treatment acceptability or departures from initial treatment model).
• It shoud include material that will facilitate dissemination and replication as supplementary material for Pediatric Case Reports in Surgery and Medicine website.
• It shoud present data concerning treatment outcome, baseline and outcome data, and describe relevant hypothesis, findings and their clinical significance, and length of follow-up.
• Case description should describe informed consent and relevant bioethical considerations concerning human research.

Identifying information, including names, initials, or autopsy numbers of the patients/deceased should not be exposed in written descriptions or photographs in no ways. Identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential.

Informed consent should be obtained in human studies, a statement indicating that the research was conducted according to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki should be be stated in the manuscript.

Tables and Figures

You may present numerical data such as laboratory findings, test results, and otehr physiological parameters related to the case in tabular form. You may alson present your results in logical sequence in the text, tables, and figures, giving the main or most important findings first. Please, do not repeat all the data in the tables or figures in the text; emphasize or summarize only the most important observations. Extra or supplementary materials and technical details can be placed in an appendix where they will be accessible but will not interrupt the flow of the text, or they can be published solely in the electronic version of the journal.

You should give numeric results not only as derivatives (for example, percentages) but also as the absolute numbers from which the derivatives were calculated, if any. You should restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the paper and to assess supporting data. Please, use graphs as an alternative to tables with many entries; do not duplicate data in graphs and tables.

Discussion

It is useful to begin the discussion by briefly summarizing the main findings and explore possible mechanisms or explanations for these findings. Emphasize the new and important aspects of your study and put your findings in the context of the totality of the relevant evidence. State the limitations of your study and explore the implications of your findings for future research and for clinical practice or policy. Do not repeat in detail data or other information given in other parts of the manuscript, such as in the Introduction or the Results [Findings] section.

Link the conclusions with the goals of the study but avoid unqualified statements and conclusions not adequately supported by the data. In particular, highlight the clinical significance and avoid claiming priority or alluding to work that has not been completed. State new hypotheses when warranted but label them clearly.

Discussion should describe key findings and innovation. It should consider implications for practice (e.g., generalizable lessons learned about applications of treatment) and describe potential recommendations for practice (e.g., for implementation of specific cases).

Case Series

A case series is a collection of case reports involving multiple patients who have received similar treatment or have similar characteristics. These patients are studied over time and usually include detailed information including demographics, treatment received and outcomes. There is no comparison group in this type of study and it can be vulnerable to selection bias but can be useful to identify new trends, diseases or an understanding of the course of a condition.

It is a descriptive, observational medical study that tracks a group of multiple patients (usually three or more and comprises <10 cases) who share a similar diagnosis, treatment, or clinical experience.

Key Characteristics
Observational and Descriptive: It only reports observations without manipulating or interfering with patient care.
No Control Group: It lacks a comparison or control group, meaning it cannot prove cause-and-effect.
Patient Scope: While a case report looks at one to three patients, a case series expands this to a larger group with common features.
Main Purposes: 
Identify New Trends: Spot unusual symptoms, rare diseases, or unexpected side effects.
Generate Hypotheses: Provide foundational data that leads to larger, controlled studies like cohort or randomized trials.
Share Clinical Experience: Demonstrate new diagnostic or surgical techniques in medical education.
Advantages and Limitations
Pros: Fast to conduct, low cost, and excellent for recognizing rare conditions.
Cons: Highly prone to sele

The manuscript should contain English abstract, a maximum of 250 words, but a structured abstract is not required. The main text should include titles or related topics to further organize the content. The manuscript could be of up to 3000 words (excluding references and abstract) and could be supported with up to 40 references. Care should be taken to ensure that the number of figures or tables does not exceed 5-6 each.

Clinical Images

A clinical images article is a short, highly visual form of medical publication that uses a striking photo, scan, or diagnostic visual to illustrate a clear clinical condition, sign, or teaching point.

Key Characteristics
Visual-First Format: The centerpiece is one or a few high-quality images (such as a skin lesion, X-ray, MRI, or pathological slide), accompanied by minimal text.
Brief Text: Word counts are typically very short, usually ranging between 150 to 500 words, focusing directly on the patient's presentation and a learning lesson.
Few or No References: These articles generally require very few references (often 0 to 5) and do not include a formal abstract.
Educational Purpose: They aim to help healthcare professionals quickly recognize classic visual patterns, rare manifestations, or unique anatomical variations.