Case reports in optometry and ophthalmology

Similar to other scientific and clinical journals, Optometry & Contact Lenses (OCL) regularly publishes case reports on a wide range of clinical issues. Case reports or case descriptions are one of the oldest forms of clinical dialogue in medicine and are divided into case reports and case series. While case reports usually discuss the findings and treatment of one patient, case series are dedicated to the management of several patients with similar diagnostic findings. Especially in medicine the value of case reports is relatively high, as they often offer clinicians the only opportunity to present new and/or interesting diagnostic findings and forms of treatment.¹ The number of case reports or case series published in peer-reviewed journals in the fields of optometry and ophthalmology is enormous. Just entering the terms, "case report retina" and "case report glaucoma" separately into the National Library of Medicine (PubMed).gov database yielded 21,616 positive results for the search terms "retina" and 8,854 for "glaucoma" on 19 November 2022. In three very interesting editorials, the editor of the prestigious scientific journal “Optometry and Vision Science (OVS)” Michael D. Twa, discusses the value of clinical case reports in the context of evidence-based practice.^2,3,4 The intended use of available evidence-based treatment and examination methods in submitted case reports, discussed by Twa in his editorials, shows their transformation in recent years. The current OCL issue presents two case reports and a case series from optometrists at two U.S. universities and a case report of two optometrists practicing in Germany, which are of interest to members of both eye care professions on the following topics:

• Acute Macular Neuroretinopathy and its Association with COVID-19
• West African Crystalline Maculopathy
• Rhopressa Clinical Use
• Normal Tension Glaucoma

Because of its German-language print edition as well as its English-language website with open-access articles published in English, Optometry & Contact Lenses (OCL) is very interesting especially for authors but also readers from different countries. This is reflected in the increasing number of English-language manuscripts submitted as well as the increase in selected German-language papers, which are translated by the publisher and can be read on the English-language OCL website.

From the well-known physician and pathologist Rudolf Carl Virchow (1821 - 1902) comes the quote "First the observations and then the experiment, then the thinking without authority, the examination without prejudice".

In this sense, Optometry and Contact Lenses (OCL) continues to look forward to receiving interesting case reports.

Literature References

[1] Kienle, G. S. (2012). Why Medical Case Reports? Global Adv. Health Med., 1, 8-9.

[2] Twa, M. D. (2016). Evidence-based Clinical Practice: Asking Focused Questions (PICO). Optom. Vis. Sci., 93, 1187-1188.

[3] Twa, M. D. (2017). The Value of Clinical Case Reports in Evidence-based Practice. Optom. Vis. Sci., 94, 135-136.

[4] Twa, M. D. (2022). Evidence-based Case Report Guidance. Optom. Vis. Sci., 99, 1-2.