ABSTRACT

Abusive head trauma (AHT) and shaken baby syndrome (SBS) are forms of nonaccidental inflicted injury to infants often due to violent shaking, impact to the head, or a combination of both (Barr, 2012). Shaken baby syndrome is a term often used by doctors and the public to describe AHT inflicted on infants and young children. While shaking an infant can cause neurologic injury, blunt impact or a combination of shaking and blunt impact can also cause injury. In recognition of the need for broad medical terminology that includes all mechanisms of injury, the new American Academy of Pediatrics (2009) policy statement, Abusive Head Trauma: A New Name for Shaken Baby Syndrome, recommends pediatricians embrace the term abusive head trauma to describe an injury inflicted to the head and its contents. Abusive head injury whether it has been caused by an impact or by a shaking mechanism has the same pathological findings within the cranial cavity (Case, 2011).