Evidence based medicine and the plastic surgery literature in Nigeria; a focus on case reports

Abstract

Background: The principles of evidence-based medicine places case reports in the lower level of the hierarchy of scientific evidence. With the increased advocacy of evidence-based medicine, the survival of the case report has been threatened, prompting several authors to call for its preservation.
Materials and methods: All articles described as case reports and published in the Nigerian Journal of Plastic Surgery from January 2008 to December 2012 were evaluated to investigate their impact on  evidence-based practice.
Result: There were 28 case reports representing 44% of all articles  published. Most articles were single case reports 16 (57%). The largest no of patients in the case report was 8 in one report representing 4%. Ten specialties in plastic surgery were represented: the largest group being craniofacial with 13 of the 28 articles (46%).
Conclusion: Case reports remain one of the commonest available evidences in plastic surgery practice in Nigeria. They cannot simply be ignored because of their incompleteness and deficiencies. Instead, we should develop ways of completing them and exploring them better to enhance the scholarly practice of plastic and reconstructive surgery.

Key words: case reports, evidence based medicine, plastic surgery literature, Nigeria.