Abstract
Objective
We investigated the accuracy of parental reports of infant trauma history.
Methods
We retrospectively reviewed 166 infants from 3 tertiary institutions in Japan that
had suffered a traumatic intracranial hemorrhage between 2002 and 2013. The infants
were classified into 3 groups based on the parents' report of the mechanism of injury:
the low-risk group consisted of injuries sustained from falling off a height below
3 ft. (n = 84); the middle-to-high-risk group comprised other mechanisms of injury (n = 54); and the unknown-risk group consisted of unknown mechanisms of injury (n = 28). The severity, neurological outcomes, clinical features, and evaluation for abuse
were compared among these 3 groups.
Results
Infants in the low-risk group had a higher severity, a worse neurological outcome,
and a higher percentage of household injuries, retinal hemorrhage, subdural hematoma,
and subdural hematoma suggestive of abusive head trauma (AHT) than those in the middle-to-high-risk
group (P < .05). Infants in the unknown-risk group had the highest severity and the worst neurological
outcomes, and a higher rate of features suggestive of AHT (P < .05).
Conclusions
The accuracy of the history obtained from the caregivers of infants may be low in
severe infantile head trauma. Therefore, medical professionals should treat the mechanism
of injury obtained from caregivers as secondary information and investigate for possible
AHT in cases with inconsistencies between the history that was taken and the severity
of the injury observed.
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: June 28, 2016
Accepted:
June 25,
2016
Received in revised form:
June 24,
2016
Received:
January 23,
2016
Footnotes
☆Funding Source: No external funding for this manuscript.
☆☆Financial Disclosure: No financial relationships relevant to this article to disclose.
★Conflict of Interest: No potential conflicts of interest to disclose.
★★The article was presented in Pediatric Academic Society on April 27, 2015.
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
