Prognostic Factors for Sequelae in Children With a History of Shaken Baby Syndrome in the Central Region

Abusive head trauma is a severe inflicted traumatic brain injury, occuring under the age of 1 year, defined by an acute brain injury (mostly subdural or subarachnoidal haemorrhage), where no history or no compatible history with the clinical presentation is given.

This is secondary to violent shaking, with or without impact, of an infant by an adult, sufficient to cause brain injury. The mortality rate is estimated at 20-25% and growth of child is extremely poor. High rates of impairment are reported : motor deficit (spastic hemiplegia or quadriplegia), epilepsy often intractable, microcephaly with corticosubcortical atrophy, visual impairment even the blindness, language disorders, cognitive (intellectual deficit), behavioral (agitation, aggression, attention deficit, inhibition deficit) and sleep disorders. Several studies on the subject highlighted that an initial severe presentation is associated with worse growth.

These is very limited research on the outcome of inflicted traumatic brain injury and the results are heterogeneous. The study hypothesis is the prognosis of the sequelae children develop according to the severity criteria presented in admission to the hospital for the Shaken Baby Syndrome.

This is an epidemiological, observational, prognostic and prospective study. The severity criteria are clinical high intracranial pressure, presence of a coma, vitreous haemorrhage, an age under 6 months, other injuries than subdural hematoma (parenchymal injuries, ischemia or cerebral oedema).

The severity criteria were chosen by studying others studies on the subject. Children concerned had been admitted to hospital for Shaken Baby Syndrome between 2010 and 2014 in France, in the Central Region. Thus today, they are between five and eight years old. We know that sequelae occur after latency, in particular when children learn to read and write.