- Only one study to date has determined the incidence of abdominal injury due to child abuse (UK data)1 and this study excluded children who died as a consequence of abuse or accidental trauma. There is a need for large scale epidemiological data to determine the prevalence and incidence of abusive abdominal injury
- It is disappointing that of 88 included studies in this review, only five were comparative studies. There is an urgent need for large scale case control studies of abdominal injuries to delineate the distinguishing characteristics of abusive and accidental injury
- There were no comparative studies relating to visceral injuries outside the abdomen, where data is limited to case studies and small case series. Future studies to determine the prevalence of such injuries would be of value
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References
- Barnes PM, Norton CM, Dunstan FD, Kemp AM, Yates DW, Sibert JR. Abdominal injury due to child abuse. Lancet. 2005;366(9481):234-235 [Pubmed]