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Battered child syndrome (BCS) is a form of physical abuse that is characterised by multiple injuries and potentially fatal outcome. Despite the high prevalence of physical abuse in developing countries, BCS is rarely reported. Hence, this report highlighted a four-year-old Nigerian boy who suffered multiple injuries (scalp haematoma, bruises, right clavicular fracture, and burns) from the paternal uncle's wife. This case report is discussed along the line of public health approach for curbing the social menace., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© Olayinka Rasheed Ibrahim et al.)

The first important monograph describing the battered child syndrome was written in 1860 by Ambroise Tardieu, a French forensic physician. Here is a translation of his article, published in the Annales d'hygiene publique et de medecine legale, with the title "Etude medico-legale sur les sevices et mauvais traitements exerces sur des enfants." The first part of his article is entirely translated. A brief summary of the 32 cases report described by Tardieu in the second part of his article is presented.

Shaken Baby Syndrome may have life-long consequences, but it can be prevented. It is far too common and usually arises when the parent or caretaker gets angry, frustrated or impatient, but it can also be caused by inappropriate play. There are pathognomonic signs but suspicion must be high to suspect it. Physicians play an important role in diagnosis, management and most importantly, prevention.

The findings in three children who died as a consequence of shaking and those in another child who survived are presented. In the three fatal cases, a combination of anatomical lesions were identified at autopsy which appear to indicate the sites where kinetic energy related to the shaking episodes had been applied thus enabling the sequence of events resulting in the fatal head injury to be elucidated. Such patterns of injuries involved the upper limb, the shoulder, the brachial nerve plexus and the muscles close to the scapula; hemorrhages were present at the insertions of the sternocleidomastoid muscles due to hyperextension trauma (the so-called periosteal sign) and in the transition zone between the cervical and thoracic spine and extradural hematomas. Characteristic lesions due to traction were also found in the legs. All three children with lethal shaking trauma died from a subdural hematoma only a few hours after the event. The surviving child had persistant hypoxic damage of the brain following on massive cerebral edema. All the children showed a discrepancy between the lack of identifiable external lesions and severe internal ones.

Inflicted traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a frequent consequence of physical child abuse in infants and children. Twenty-eight children who were 2-42 months of age when hospitalized for moderate to severe TBI were enrolled in a prospective, longitudinal study of neurobehavioral outcome following acquired brain injury. Relative to a comparison group, the children with inflicted TBI had significant deficits in cognitive, motor and behavioral domains when assessed with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-II 1 and 3 months after the injury. Nearly half of the injured children showed persisting deficits in attention/arousal, emotional regulation and motor coordination. Greater injury severity, as indicated by lower coma scale scores, longer periods of unconsciousness and the presence of edema/cerebral infarctions was associated with poorer outcomes in all domains., (Copyright 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel)

Infants subjected to repeated episodes of violent shaking develop brain damage characterized by intracranial hemorrhage and progressive cortical atrophy. We have developed an animal model that mimics this pathological state and investigated its etiology and treatment. Anesthetized male rats, 6 days of age, were subjected to one episode of shaking per day for 3 consecutive days. Separate groups of rats were sacrificed 1 h postinjury on the third day of shaking for HPLC quantification of cortical .OH and vitamin E levels, and histological assessment of cortical hemorrhaging. Additional groups were sacrificed 7 or 14 days postinjury to demonstrate progressive neuronal degeneration via cortical wet weight comparisons. In comparison to noninjured shams, the results indicated that cortical vitamin E and .OH levels rose 53.7% (p < 0.005) and 457.1% (p < 0.001), respectively, in shaken infant rats. Brain histologies revealed a moderate-to-severe degree of cortical hemorrhaging in these animals 1 h postinjury. By 7 and 14 days postinjury, there was a 13.3% and 28.7% (p < 0.0001 vs. sham) loss of cortical tissue in shaken infants, respectively, indicating progressive neuronal degeneration. Treatment with 10 mg/kg (ip) of the 21-aminosteroid antioxidant, tirilazad mesylate, 10 min before and 2 h after each episode of shaking, resulted in a 53.1% attenuation of cortical .OH levels and a 34.9% decrease in brain hemorrhaging (p < 0.05 vs. vehicle). Tirilazad treatment did not, however, significantly effect cortical vitamin E concentrations at 1 h postinjury or the extent of progressive neuronal degeneration at either 7 or 14 days postinjury. The present animal model mimics the brain pathology seen in abused children. Our observation that tirilazad mesylate, an antioxidant-lipid peroxidation inhibitor, significantly reduces cortical .OH levels and brain hemorrhaging in shaken infant rats supports a role for oxygen radicals in the pathophysiology of this type of CNS injury. The failure of tirilazad to block progressive cortical degeneration suggests that mechanisms other than free radicals may be of prime importance in the mediation of this aspect of the pathology.

Purpose: To determine if electroretinography is helpful in the work-up of children with the shaken baby syndrome., Methods: Six children with retinal hemorrhages and the shaken baby syndrome underwent electroretinography (ERG). The ERGs of these six children were compared with six age-matched controls using the sign-rank test., Results: Neither the implicit time nor the amplitude of the white scotopic ERG response was significantly different between these patients and age-matched controls. Although the amplitude of the blue scotopic and 30 Hz flicker responses were attenuated (p < 0.05), the implicit times were not significantly different from controls. Three of the patients had serial ERGs recorded. The b-wave implicit time and amplitude improved in two of these patients. The ERG was helpful in distinguishing between a CNS and a retinal cause of visual loss in one child., Conclusions: The ERG can be helpful in assessing retinal function in children with the shaken baby syndrome who have persistent visual impairment. In most cases, the ERG is not helpful in the initial assessment of children with the shaken baby syndrome.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to use proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) as a metabolic assay to describe biochemical changes during the evolution of neuronal injury in infants after shaken baby syndrome (SBS), that explain the disparity between apparent physical injury and the neurological deficit after SBS., Methodology: Three infants [6 months (A), 5 weeks (B), 7 months (C)] with SBS were examined repeatedly using localized quantitative proton MRS. Examinations were performed on days 7 and 13 (A), on days 1, 3, 5, and 12 (B), and on days 7 and 19 (C) posttrauma. Long-term follow-up examinations were performed 5 months posttrauma (A) and 4.6 months posttrauma (B). Data were compared to control data from 52 neurologically normal infants presented in a previous study., Results: Spectra from parietal white matter obtained at approximately the same time after injury (5 to 7 days) showed markedly different patterns of abnormality. Infant A shows near normal levels of the neuronal marker N-acetyl aspartate, creatine, and phosphocreatine, although infant C shows absent N-acetyl aspartate, almost absent creatine and phosphocreatine, and a great excess of lactate/lipid and lipid. Analysis of the time course in infant B appears to connect these variations as markers of the severity of head injury suffered in the abuse, indicating a progression of biochemical abnormality. The principal cerebral metabolites detected by MRS that remain normal up to 24 hours fall precipitately to approximately 40% of normal within 5 to 12 days, with lactate/lipid and lipid levels more than doubling concentration between days 5 and 12., Conclusions: A strong impression is gained of MRS as a prognostic marker because infant A recovered although infants B and C remained in a state consistent with compromised neurological capacity. Loss of integrity of the proton MR spectrum appears to signal irreversible neurological damage and occurs at a time when clinical and neurological status gives no indication of long-term outcome. These results suggest the value of sequential MRS in the management of SBS.

Objective: A retrospective study was performed to examine the relationship between the severity of vitreous hemorrhages and the severity of neurological injury in infants with shaken baby syndrome, and the result of early vitrectomy in these infants., Methods: Five infants, ages 3 to 8 months, with confirmed child abuse underwent ocular examination and neurological testing to identify varying degrees of vitreoretinal changes and neurological dysfunction. Pars plana vitrectomy was performed on one or both eyes in each infant to remove the vitreous hemorrhage., Results: The three infants with bilateral dense vitreous hemorrhage and multiple subarachnoid hemorrhage and cerebral contusions had poor postoperative ocular and neurological outcomes including light perception (LP) or no light perception (NLP) vision, large retinal holes or tears, retinal ischemia, and severe encephalopathy. The other two infants presented with bilateral subhyaloid and retinal hemorrhages without dense vitreous involvement, along with mild subarachnoid hemorrhage and minimal neurological findings. Following vitrectomy, visual acuities in these infants improved to or remained at the fix and follow state, and both infants improved neurologically., Conclusions: The presence of dense vitreous hemorrhage in infants with shaken baby syndrome has a poor visual prognosis, due to the frequent concomitant occurrence of significant retinal and visual cortical pathology. In contrast, infants with only intraretinal or subhyaloid hemorrhage tend to have a much better prognosis, with less disruption of both intraocular and intracranial structures.