Non-accidental head trauma - Shaken Child Syndrome - older children and inflicted head trauma

The article linked to this blog describes the differences and similarities in injury patterns between older and younger victims of abusive head trauma. The older victims in these case analyses are noted to have suffered abusive head trauma inflicted on them by different mechanisms of injury then infants and toddlers. Researchers commented that perpetrators of child abuse tend to shake their older child victims by the shoulders and head when inflicting abuse due to their larger size and weight. This mechanism is less likely to result in rib fractures in older victims. Which differs compared to how child abusers inflict abuse on infants and toddlers. Infants and toddlers are more likely to sustain rib fractures because perpetrators of abuse pick their infant/toddler victims up by the torso and shake them violently while holding the torso excessively tight. However, the shaking of the victims causes similarities in injury-patterns involving older and younger victims of child abuse. The similarities between the two groups include the presence of blunt-trauma to the head, diffuse axonal injury and retinal hemorrhages.