THURSDAY, March 19 (HealthDay News) -- Infants who die after abusive head injuries often have neck injuries, although these injuries appear to be only a contributing factor to most brain lesions associated with abusive head trauma, researchers report in the March issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics.
Laura K. Brennan, M.D., from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and colleagues examined patterns of neck injuries in 41 children aged 2 years and younger who died of abusive head trauma.
The investigators found that 71 percent (29 children) had primary cervical cord injuries (parenchymal injuries, meningeal hemorrhages, nerve root avulsion or dorsal root ganglion hemorrhages); 21 percent of these had soft tissue injuries to the neck and 48 percent had brainstem injuries. Primary cervical spinal cord injuries were significantly associated with cerebral edema. Six children had no evidence of a head injury, but all had primary cervical spinal cord injury. There were no spinal fractures, the researchers report.
"Cervical spinal cord injury is a frequent but not universal finding in young children with fatal abusive head trauma," Brennan and colleagues conclude. "Although there was a significant association of primary cervical spinal cord injury with cerebral edema, there was no direct relationship with brainstem herniation, hypoxia-ischemia or infarction."
Abstract
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