Shaken baby syndrome

Injuries, particularly to the head, caused by violently shaking an infant. The syndrome is the commonest cause of infant death from head injuries and one of the most serious kinds of child abuse. The syndrome also goes by other names such as shaking impact syndrome. Shaken baby syndrome is encountered most often infancy at 2-3 months old. The syndrome has distinctive features including hemorrhage (bleeding) into the retina of the eye, hemorrhage and swelling of the brain, patterned bruising and fractures (breaks) of the child's ribs or bones where they have been twisted from the shaking. Deaths from the syndrome are high. And brain damage, visual problems, psychological consequences and learning difficulties due to the syndrome are even higher. Shaken adult syndrome due to domestic violence has also been reported with the diagnostic triad of retinal hemorrhages, subdural hematoma (collection of blood beneath the dura, a membrane surrounding the brain), and patterned bruising that is associated with the shaken baby syndrome.

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shak·en baby syndrome 'shā-kən- n one or more of a group of symptoms (as limb paralysis, epilepsy, vision loss, or mental retardation) that tend to occur in an infant which has been severely shaken but that may also result from other actions (as tossing) causing internal trauma (as hemorrhage, hematoma, or contusions) esp. to the brain region, and that may ultimately result in the death of the infant called also shaken infant syndrome compare BATTERED CHILD SYNDROME