Des histoires, encore des histoires… Les rapports de cas sont-ils autre chose que des anecdotes ?

Despite their low level of scientific evidence, case reports continue to be published and read. Their narrative form makes them more entertaining, easier to understand and remember than theoretical discussions or statistical reports. They are particularly suited to show how the specifics of a case impact its management, and thus contribute to increasing the reader's deliberative experience. But case reports also contain original facts that may have evidential value, potentially suggesting or corroborating a hypothesis. To this end, case reports must be well documented and cautiously interpreted. The two main challenges are to establish that the case-related observations are not due to chance alone and to define the population for which the lessons drawn from the case can be extrapolated.