An unresponsive infant in the emergency room.
The physician must be aware of the computed tomography appearance of an acute-hyperacute subdural hematoma in child abuse and not mistake it for chronic subdural hematoma with "spontaneous" rebleeding. As always, the imaging findings must be correlated with the clinical findings. Clinical and imaging findings of injury out of proportion to the history, and injuries of different ages are the key indicators to the possibility of child abuse, particularly when encountered in a young infant.
Barnes
P D
PD
Department of Radiology, Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Robson
C D
CD
D000208:Acute Disease; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002662:Child Health Services; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D006408:Hematoma, Subdural / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011859:Radiography