Bone pathology mimicking non-accidental injury in a child - Bewildered by bones, case report and review of the literature.

Int J Surg Case Rep

Specialty Registrar in Anaesthetics, Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital, Margate, UK. Electronic address:

Published: July 2023

Introduction And Importance: Physical abuse of children is criminal conduct in the purview of medico-legal sciences and the confirmative diagnosis of 'child abuse' is imperative for further legal proceedings. Clinicians play a pivotal role in the protection of children by recognizing and reporting such cases and treating the victims of abuse.

Presentation Of Case: To the best of our knowledge, we present the first case report in literature where osteofibrous dysplasia resulted in a pathological fracture in a 10-month-old South-Asian child which resembled the picture of child abuse.

Clinical Discussion: The challenges faced by clinicians in the process of analysis of presumed child abuse are numerous and careful formulation and elimination of medical conditions which may mimic non-accidental injury (NAI) is a must, prior to making an incontrovertible diagnosis.

Conclusion: The telltale signs of NAI such as soft tissue injuries and fractures in a victimized child should always be evaluated cautiously with the intent of excluding pathologies that may mimic them and the evidence in this regard is seldom in literature.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10276152PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijscr.2023.108393DOI Listing

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