Skeletal Aspects of Non-Accidental Injury

Abstract

Inflicted non-accidental skeletal injuries form a small but important part of the spectrum of child abuse, with the majority of skeletal injuries occurring in children under 2 years of age. Radiology plays a vital role in the detection and evaluation of these skeletal injuries. A thorough detailed radiological evaluation should be undertaken to investigate a child appropriately for a suspected inflicted non-accidental injury to accurately detect and possibly date any injuries and also to exclude normal variants of growth that may mimic fractures. In some cases, the survey may diagnose an underlying metabolic or genetic disorder of the bone that may predispose the child to fracturing. While radiology plays an important role in the dating of injuries, the dating of fractures from radiological appearances is difficult and imprecise. Any fracture may be the result of an inflicted injury or accidental event. Therefore, it is important that all fractures identified are correlated with any relevant clinical history. Certain injuries, such as rib and metaphyseal fractures, require a more specific method of causation and therefore carry a higher degree of suspicion of being the result of an inflicted injury compared with other fracture types, which are relatively non-specific in their mechanisms of causation, such as skull and clavicular fractures. In all cases, correlation with clinical history is mandatory.