Cargando…

Diagnosis of Abusive Head Trauma : Neurosurgical Perspective

Abusive head trauma (AHT) is the most severe form of physical abuse in children. Such injury involves traumatic damage to the head and/or spine of infants and young children. The term AHT was introduced to include a wider range of injury mechanisms, such as intentional direct blow, throw, and even p...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Kwak, Young Ho
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Korean Neurosurgical Society 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9082129/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35468707
http://dx.doi.org/10.3340/jkns.2021.0284
_version_ 1784703141218877440
author Kwak, Young Ho
author_facet Kwak, Young Ho
author_sort Kwak, Young Ho
collection PubMed
description Abusive head trauma (AHT) is the most severe form of physical abuse in children. Such injury involves traumatic damage to the head and/or spine of infants and young children. The term AHT was introduced to include a wider range of injury mechanisms, such as intentional direct blow, throw, and even penetrating trauma by perpetuator(s). Currently, it is recommended to replace the former term, shaken baby syndrome, which implicates shaking as the only mechanism, with AHT to include diverse clinical and radiological manifestations. The consequences of AHT cause devastating medical, social and financial burdens on families, communities, and victims. The potential harm of AHT to the developing brain and spinal cord of the victims is tremendous. Many studies have reported that the adverse effects of AHT are various and serious, such as blindness, mental retardation, physical limitation of daily activities and even psychological problems. Therefore, appropriate vigilance for the early recognition and diagnosis of AHT is highly recommended to stop and prevent further injuries. The aim of this review is to summarize the relevant evidence concerning the early recognition and diagnosis of AHT. To recognize this severe type of child abuse early, all health care providers maintain a high index of suspicion and vigilance. Such suspicion can be initiated with careful and thorough history taking and physical examinations. Previously developed clinical prediction rules can be helpful for decision-making regarding starting an investigation when considering meaningful findings. Even the combination of biochemical markers may be useful to predict AHT. For a more confirmative evaluation, neuroradiological imaging is required to find AHT-specific findings. Moreover, timely consultation with ophthalmologists is needed to find a very specific finding, retinal hemorrhage.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9082129
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Korean Neurosurgical Society
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-90821292022-05-17 Diagnosis of Abusive Head Trauma : Neurosurgical Perspective Kwak, Young Ho J Korean Neurosurg Soc Review Article Abusive head trauma (AHT) is the most severe form of physical abuse in children. Such injury involves traumatic damage to the head and/or spine of infants and young children. The term AHT was introduced to include a wider range of injury mechanisms, such as intentional direct blow, throw, and even penetrating trauma by perpetuator(s). Currently, it is recommended to replace the former term, shaken baby syndrome, which implicates shaking as the only mechanism, with AHT to include diverse clinical and radiological manifestations. The consequences of AHT cause devastating medical, social and financial burdens on families, communities, and victims. The potential harm of AHT to the developing brain and spinal cord of the victims is tremendous. Many studies have reported that the adverse effects of AHT are various and serious, such as blindness, mental retardation, physical limitation of daily activities and even psychological problems. Therefore, appropriate vigilance for the early recognition and diagnosis of AHT is highly recommended to stop and prevent further injuries. The aim of this review is to summarize the relevant evidence concerning the early recognition and diagnosis of AHT. To recognize this severe type of child abuse early, all health care providers maintain a high index of suspicion and vigilance. Such suspicion can be initiated with careful and thorough history taking and physical examinations. Previously developed clinical prediction rules can be helpful for decision-making regarding starting an investigation when considering meaningful findings. Even the combination of biochemical markers may be useful to predict AHT. For a more confirmative evaluation, neuroradiological imaging is required to find AHT-specific findings. Moreover, timely consultation with ophthalmologists is needed to find a very specific finding, retinal hemorrhage. Korean Neurosurgical Society 2022-05 2022-04-26 /pmc/articles/PMC9082129/ /pubmed/35468707 http://dx.doi.org/10.3340/jkns.2021.0284 Text en Copyright © 2022 The Korean Neurosurgical Society https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) ) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Review Article
Kwak, Young Ho
Diagnosis of Abusive Head Trauma : Neurosurgical Perspective
title Diagnosis of Abusive Head Trauma : Neurosurgical Perspective
title_full Diagnosis of Abusive Head Trauma : Neurosurgical Perspective
title_fullStr Diagnosis of Abusive Head Trauma : Neurosurgical Perspective
title_full_unstemmed Diagnosis of Abusive Head Trauma : Neurosurgical Perspective
title_short Diagnosis of Abusive Head Trauma : Neurosurgical Perspective
title_sort diagnosis of abusive head trauma : neurosurgical perspective
topic Review Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9082129/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35468707
http://dx.doi.org/10.3340/jkns.2021.0284
work_keys_str_mv AT kwakyoungho diagnosisofabusiveheadtraumaneurosurgicalperspective