We included high quality case series / studies, where abuse had been confirmed. To minimise circularity in relation to confirmation of abuse, we included only those studies where the rank of abuse was 1 or 2. In order to address the role of non-radiological investigations in detecting abusive abdominal injury, we accepted studies with a lower rank of abuse (4-5) for this question, in order to determine if occult injuries were present.
See evidence sheets and critical appraisal forms for each year’s update
|
Inclusion |
Exclusion |
|
children aged 0 to < 18 years |
studies with mixed child and adult subjects, where the children’s data could not be extracted |
|
alive or deceased on presentation |
inadequate clinical detail of included cases |
|
injury confirmed by one or more of the following:
contrast studies
computed tomography (CT) scanning, with or without contrast
surgery
post mortem examination |
studies including a mixture of abusive and accidental injuries, where the details of these two groups could not be extracted
studies exclusively addressing the outcome / management of visceral injuries
studies of sexual abuse, thus all ano-genital / rectal injuries |