Upcoming Events
Log In
Pricing
Free Trial

Non-Accidental Trauma CT (Part 1)

HIDE
PrevNext

0:01

As I mentioned, we at Johns Hopkins have the

0:04

favor of having an emergency room MRI scanner

0:08

that's just adjacent to the clinical area.

0:11

For those institutions that don't have ready access to

0:15

24/7 MRI scanning, the evaluation of the child for potential

0:20

non-accidental trauma will be performed with CT

0:23

scanning, despite the fact that we're trying to reduce

0:26

radiation exposure to children as much as possible.

0:30

Here is an example of a patient

0:32

who had non-accidental trauma.

0:34

It's nice because it shows, in coronal and axial planes,

0:38

the presence of subdural hematomas of different ages.

0:43

How do we know that?

0:43

Different ages, different density.

0:46

Here's the hyperdense subdural hematoma.

0:50

Here is a low-density, chronic subdural

0:53

hematoma, and this is a bilateral process.

0:58

When you have

0:59

subdural collections along the posterior falx,

1:03

it's highly suggestive of non-accidental trauma.

1:07

So if you have hemorrhage on the surface of

1:11

the brain, along the cortical surface, again,

1:14

it's often seen in patients who have diffuse

1:16

axonal injury, which may be secondary to

1:19

quote-unquote "shaken baby syndrome."

1:22

Unfortunately, one of the manifestations of

1:24

non-accidental trauma is diffuse cerebral edema.

1:28

This is secondary to that severe trauma where you have

1:32

effectively a glutaminergic outpouring, which leads

1:35

to cytotoxic edema of the brain, cerebral swelling,

1:40

and a diffuse process that has a very poor prognosis.

1:44

Here is a child. You see open

1:46

sutures, but in addition to the open

1:49

coronal suture and lambdoid

1:52

suture, we see fractures occurring.

1:54

So the presence of fractures with subdurals

1:57

of different ages will elicit a concern for

2:01

non-accidental trauma in all likelihood.

2:04

The next thing that will happen is you'll have the

2:06

ophthalmologist looking for retinal hemorrhages.

2:09

You'll have a screening whole-body plain film

2:12

examination for metaphyseal fractures, rib

2:15

fractures, or evidence of additional trauma.

Report

Faculty

David M Yousem, MD, MBA

Professor of Radiology, Vice Chairman and Associate Dean

Johns Hopkins University

Tags

Trauma

Neuroradiology

Emergency

CT

Brain

© 2025 Medality. All Rights Reserved.

Contact UsTerms of UsePrivacy Policy