Venous injury in pediatric abusive head trauma: a pictorial review

Abusive head trauma (AHT) is the leading cause of fatal head injuries in children younger than 2 years. An intracranial pathology can exist even in the setting of a normal physical exam. A delay in the diagnosis of AHT can have serious life-threatening consequences for the child and increases the po...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Pediatric radiology 2021-05, Vol.51 (6), p.918-926
Main Authors: Vilanilam, George Koshy, Jayappa, Sateesh, Desai, Shivang, Zuccoli, Giulio, Ramakrishnaiah, Raghu H., Choudhary, Arabinda K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Blood coagulation
Brain
Child Abuse Imaging
Dura mater
Familiarity
Head
Head injuries
Hematoma
Imaging
Injuries
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Meninges
Neuroradiology
Nuclear Medicine
Oncology
Pediatrics
Radiology
Shearing
Thrombosis
Trauma
Ultrasound
Veins
Veins & arteries
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Summary:Abusive head trauma (AHT) is the leading cause of fatal head injuries in children younger than 2 years. An intracranial pathology can exist even in the setting of a normal physical exam. A delay in the diagnosis of AHT can have serious life-threatening consequences for the child and increases the potential the child will be abused again. In this article, we review the traumatic subdural hematoma as well as various morpho-structural patterns of shearing injuries and thrombosis of intracranial bridging veins. This work serves as a summary of patterns of imaging features of intracranial venous injury in AHT, as described in the literature, to facilitate familiarity and early detection of abusive head trauma in the pediatric population. Essentially, in AHT there is a traumatic injury to the bridging vein with either partial or complete tear. This can secondarily result in thrombosis at the terminal end of the bridging vein with blood clots adjacent to the bridging vein.
ISSN:0301-0449
1432-1998
DOI:10.1007/s00247-021-05016-9