Infant Brain Injury Complications
Shaken baby/shaken impact syndrome (SBS) is a form of inflicted head trauma. Head injury, as a form of child abuse, can be caused by direct blows to the head, dropping or throwing the child, or shaking the child. Head trauma is the leading cause of death in child abuse cases in the United States.
How Does SBS Happen?
Unlike other forms of inflicted head trauma, SBS results from injuries caused by someone vigorously shaking an infant. Because of the anatomy of infants, they're at particular risk for injury from this kind of action. Therefore, the vast majority of incidents occur in infants who are younger than 1 year old. The average age of victims is between 3 and 8 months, although SBS is occasionally seen in children up to 4 years old.
The perpetrators in SBS cases are almost always parents or caregivers, who shake the baby out of frustration or stress when the little one is crying inconsolably. Sadly, the shaking has the desired effect: although at first the baby cries more out of fear, it eventually stops crying as the brain is damaged.
Approximately 60% of shaken babies are male, and children of families who live at or below the poverty level are at an increased risk for SBS as well as any type of child abuse. And it's estimated that the perpetrators in 65% to 90% of cases are males - usually either the baby's father or the mother's boyfriend, often someone in his early 20s.
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When someone forcefully shakes a baby, the child's head rotates about uncontrollably because infants' neck muscles aren't well developed and provide little support for their heads. The violent movement pitches the infant's brain back and forth within the skull, rupturing blood vessels and nerves throughout the brain and tearing the brain tissue. The brain strikes the inside of the skull, causing bruising and bleeding to the brain.
The damage is even greater when the shaking ends with an impact of hitting a wall or a crib mattress, because the forces of acceleration and deceleration associated with an impact are so strong. After the shaking, swelling in the brain can cause enormous pressure within the skull, compressing blood vessels and increasing overall injury to its delicate structure.
Normal interaction with a child, like bouncing the baby on a knee, will not cause SBS, although it's important not to shake a baby under any circumstances because gentle shaking can rapidly escalate.
Head injuries are the most common cause of child brain trauma death. Head injuries result in about 600,000 visits to the emergency department, and 250,000 hospitalizations annually. The main causes of head injuries in children are falls, motor vehicle crashes, pedestrian accidents, bicycle injuries, and sports injuries, assault, and non-accidental trauma. Motor vehicle accidents are the most common cause of traumatic death due to head injuries. The diagnostic dilemma for treating children with head injuries lies in identifying those patients who require more acute attention, and differentiating them from stable patients.
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Younger children are at higher risk for sustaining serious head injury. It is important to realize that unlike injuries to other parts of the body, baby brain injury occurs within a confined volume, the intracranial space. The intracranial space is made up of three components--brain volume, blood volume and cerebral spinal fluid volume.
Has your baby suffered birth injury complications? What went wrong and who is at fault? Let the lawyers at the Pennsylvania law firm of Anapol Schwartz help you and your family. Find out how. This is a difficult time; let us help.
