Abusive head trauma

Last revised by Daniel J Bell on 19 Jun 2020

Abusive head trauma is a term that is used for inflicted head injury that has occurred by either shaking, impact head trauma, or both, as part of the spectrum of non-accidental injury (NAI).

Pathology

Intracranial injuries

Subdural hemorrhage in a child should be viewed with suspicion. Most often, the subdural hemorrhages will demonstrate varying ages.

A potential pitfall is interpreting subdural hygroma in a patient with benign enlargement of the subarachnoid spaces (BESS) as suggestive of NAI without other stigmata 9.

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