title: Linear parietal skull fracture in a three-month-old without a history of injury--abuse or not? The issue of a corroborated history.
abstract: When the clinician is faced with an infant with a skull fracture and there is no history of injury, or the history is provided only by a caretaker, the available data would indicate that a simple linear parietal skull fracture without any accompanying neurologic injury is possible from a fall of at least three feet onto a hard surface. Any more serious, multiple or complex injuries should be treated as suspect and investigated by social services and law enforcement. The clinician should refrain from making any dogmatic statements about what may or may not have occurred. We simply do not have the data to say anything further. It is up to social services and the legal system to investigate and decide if child abuse has occurred.
authors.forename: Lesa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bethea
mesh_terms: D002649:Child Abuse / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008487:Medical History Taking; D010294:Parietal Bone / Q000293:injuries*; D012887:Skull Fractures / Q000209:etiology*