Death due to a ruptured berry aneurysm in a 3.5-year-old child

Distinguishing accidental from inflicted head trauma at autopsy

This article will discuss accidental and inflicted head injuries in infants and young children and how forensic pathologists distinguish between these types of injuries. The article begins with a consideration of the special and unique features of the anatomy and development of the child's head and neck and then relates these features to the mechanisms of traumatic brain injury and how these unique features influence the mechanisms of injury. The article very specifically notes that accidental head injuries in young children that occur in and around the home are focal head injuries in distinction to inflicted head injuries, which are diffuse brain injuries. The article discusses the mechanisms by which traumatic brain injury causes loss of consciousness and relates those mechanisms to the differences in the clinical features that occur in both accidental and inflicted head injury. The article discusses and illustrates the pathological findings in accidental head injuries consisting of the crushing head injuries and the head injuries sustained in short falls including epidural hemorrhage and focal subdural hemorrhage. The article discusses and illustrates the pathological findings that occur in inflicted head trauma, including subdural and subarachnoid hemorrhages and retinal and optic nerve sheath hemorrhages.

Fatal subarachnoid hemorrhage due to ruptured vertebrobasilar aneurysm associated with giant cell arteritis in a child

A 3 ½-year-old previously healthy female experienced an episode of sudden unresponsiveness witnessed by her mother. Upon arrival to the local hospital, imaging studies of the still unresponsive child revealed severe bilateral "flash" pulmonary edema and diffuse anoxic brain injury. Aggressive resuscitative efforts were unsuccessful, and she was pronounced dead. External examination at autopsy was essentially unremarkable. Internal examination of the head revealed diffuse basilar subarachnoid blood originating from a collapsed, 2 cm irregular aneurysm arising from the junction of the vertebral and basilar arteries. Additionally, multiple calcified subpleural, parenchymal, and hilar nodal pulmonary granulomas were identified. The remaining internal examination, including that of the aorta and its major branches, was unremarkable. Histologic examination of the aneurysm revealed alternating mural attenuation and thickening, the latter resulting from prominent intimal proliferation with active fibroplasia. Most notably, numerous isolated and clustered multinucleated giant cells were seen, most prominently in areas of more intense inflammation. Specific immunolabeling and silver staining of the pulmonary granulomas revealed evidence of histoplasmosis, but both were negative for fungal elements in the aneurysm, as was ultrastructural examination. The cause of death is fatal subarachnoid hemorrhage due to rupture of a vertebrobasilar artery aneurysm caused by isolated intracranial giant cell arteritis.

Inflicted traumatic brain injury in infants and young children

This article will discuss the subject of inflicted or abusive head injury in infants and young children. Inflicted neurotrauma is a very common injury and a frequent problem in attempting to distinguish between inflicted and accidental injury. Inflicted head injury occurs usually in the home in the presence of the individual who has inflicted the injury outside the view of unbiased witnesses. Distinguishing between inflicted and accidental injury may be dependent upon the pathological findings and consideration of the circumstances surrounding the injury. The most common finding in an inflicted head injury is the presence of subdural hemorrhage. Subdural hemorrhage may occur in a variety of distributions and appearances. The natural history of subdural bleeding and the anatomy of the "subdural" will be considered. The anatomy of the dura and its attachment to the skull and to the arachnoid determines how subdural bleeding evolves into the cleaved dural border cell layer and as well as how bridging veins are torn and anatomically where bleeding will occur. Different biomechanical mechanisms result in different distributions of subdural blood and these differences will be discussed.

Position paper on fatal abusive head injuries in infants and young children

This article represents the work of the National Association of Medical Examiners Ad Hoc Committee on shaken baby syndrome. Abusive head injuries include injuries caused by shaking as well as impact to the head, either by directly striking the head or by causing the head to strike another object or surface. Because of anatomic and developmental differences in the brain and skull of the young child, the mechanisms and types of injuries that affect the head differ from those that affect the older child or adult. The mechanism of injury produced by inflicted head injuries in these children is most often rotational movement of the brain within the cranial cavity. Rotational movement of the brain damages the nervous system by creating shearing forces, which cause diffuse axonal injury with disruption of axons and tearing of bridging veins, which causes subdural and subarachnoid hemorrhages, and is very commonly associated with retinal schisis and hemorrhages. Recognition of this mechanism of injury may be helpful in severe acute rotational brain injuries because it facilitates understanding of such clinical features as the decrease in the level of consciousness and respiratory distress seen in these injured children. The pathologic findings of subdural hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and retinal hemorrhages are offered as "markers" to assist in the recognition of the presence of shearing brain injury in young children.