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Abusive Head Trauma: Understanding Head Injury Maltreatment

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Handbook of Interpersonal Violence and Abuse Across the Lifespan

Abstract

Abusive head trauma (AHT) is a leading cause of death in physically abused children. It has been a recognized entity for many decades, although its nomenclature has evolved. This chapter begins by discussing the early history of AHT and its statistics, epidemiology, and risk factors.

The above will be followed by the most important information in this chapter, which is the description of the clinical manifestations, biomechanics, and evaluation of children with suspected AHT, including how to obtain a medical history, important features of the physical exam, and diagnostic methods. We will also discuss mimics and their differentiation.

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Brown, V.W., Bryant, T.J. (2020). Abusive Head Trauma: Understanding Head Injury Maltreatment. In: Geffner, R., White, J.W., Hamberger, L.K., Rosenbaum, A., Vaughan-Eden, V., Vieth, V.I. (eds) Handbook of Interpersonal Violence and Abuse Across the Lifespan. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62122-7_247-1

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