Sbs Syndrome

1. What is shaken baby syndrome?
Shaken baby syndrome is a term used to describe the constellation of signs and symptoms resulting from violent shaking or shaking and impacting of the head of aninfant or small child. The degree of brain damage depends on the amount and duration of the shaking and the forces involved in impact of the head. Signs and symptoms range on a spectrum of neurologicalalterations from minor (irritability, lethargy, tremors, vomiting) to major (seizures, coma, stupor, death). These neurological changes are due to destruction of brain cells secondary to trauma, lackof oxygen to the brain cells, and swelling of the brain. Extensive retinal hemorrhages in one or both eyes are found in the vast majority of these cases. The classic triad of subdural hematoma, brainswelling and retinal hemorrhages are accompanied in some, but not all, cases by bruising of the part of the body used as a "handle" for shaking. Fractures of the long bones and/or of the ribs may alsobe seen in some cases. In many cases, however, there is no external evidence of trauma either to the head or the body. (Definition provided by Robert Reece, M.D. Dr. Reece is a clinical professor ofPediatrics at the Tufts University School of Medicine.) 

Approximately 20% of cases are fatal in the first few days after injury and the majority of the survivors are left with handicaps ranging frommild - learning disorders, behavioral changes - to moderate and severe, such as profound mental and developmental retardation, paralysis, blindness, inability to eat or exist in a permanent vegetativestate. 

In a response provided by Dr. John Lancon, he defined shaken baby syndrome as the constellation of non-accidental intracranial and ocular hemorrhages occurring in infants and young children.Other injuries, including cutaneous bruises, lacerations, burns, parenchymal brain injuries, rib fractures, extremity fractures, and injuries to various internal organs may be seen in the setting...