When Its Just a Bump on the Head: Interpreting Skull Fractures in the Context of Child Maltreatment
- Recognize that not all skull fractures in children are the same
- Analyze a case and identify nuances in skull fractures in children
- Importance of developmental level
- Challenges of dating skull fractures
- Importance of the full picture
- Develop a more nuanced approach to responding to skull fractures in children
Accessible Version
The objective of the talk today is to provide a general overview of skull fractures in children and introduce you to some of the current literature on skull fractures. And specifically to: 1) Recognize that not all skull fractures in children are the same 2) Analyze a case and identify nuances in skull fractures in children 3) Develop a more nuanced approach to responding to skull fractures in children I come by this approach after spending the better part of my child abuse fellowship pouring over charts of children found to have skull fractures in the emergency department of two hospitals in Seattle. It seems that many of the pioneers in child abuse medicine have started their careers looking at skull fractures. Why this is a perennial topic for study is that skull fractures are common in children, imaging technology has continued to get better and ultimately the we are constantly looking at how we can be more specific in our diagnosis of abuse in children presenting with skull fractures.