Retinal Hemorrhages: Abusive Head Trauma or Not?

Abusive head trauma is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in infants and young children. Retinal hemorrhages (RHs) are frequently seen, particularly during dilated eye examination of these children. This review focuses on the evaluation of children with RH, with emphasis on the differential diagnosis, pathophysiology, and distinguishing features of RHs due to abusive head trauma.

Evaluations for abuse in young children with subdural hemorrhages: findings based on symptom severity and benign enlargement of the subarachnoid spaces.

OBJECTIVE Children who have subdural hematomas (SDHs) with no or minimal neurological symptoms (SDH-mild symptoms) often present a forensic challenge. Nonabusive causes of SDH, including birth-related SDH, benign enlargement of the subarachnoid spaces (BESS), and other proposed causes have been offered as etiologies. These alternative causes do not provide explanations for concomitant suspicious injuries (CSIs).

Evaluation of the Hypothesis That Choking/ALTE May Mimic Abusive Head Trauma.

Objective: Apparent life-threatening events (ALTEs), often accompanied by choking, have been hypothesized to cause subdural hemorrhages (SDH), retinal hemorrhages, and brain injury. If the choking/ALTE hypothesis were true, children who present with ALTE and SDH would have fewer extracranial injuries suspicious for abuse than those with SDH and no ALTE. We aimed to compare the prevalence of suspicious extracranial injuries in children who have ALTE-associated SDH to those with non-ALTE SDH.