Abstract
Aims
To report the similarity of retinal findings in an infant who sustained an accidental head injury and an infant with non-accidental head trauma.
Methods
Two male infants sustained head injuries with skull fractures. Case 1 was an accidental head injury and case 2 was a non-accidental head injury.
Results
On examination, in case 1, there were four superficial retinal haemorrhages in the right fundus. The left eye had a haemorrhagic optic disc oedema with extensive retinal haemorrhages, retinal folds, and schitic cavities within the retina at the posterior pole. In case 2, the right fundus had a single blot haemorrhage at the posterior pole. The left fundus revealed optic disc haemorrhage and oedema with extensive retinal haemorrhages. There was a haemorrhagic retinoschisis with a retinal fold.
Conclusions
The two cases, one with accidental and the other with non-accidental injury, demonstrate very similar ophthalmic findings. This supports the argument that there may be no retinal signs seen exclusively in non-accidental head injury.
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This work was presented as a poster at the American Academy of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus Annual Meeting in Seattle, USA, 2007
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Watts, P., Obi, E. Retinal folds and retinoschisis in accidental and non-accidental head injury. Eye 22, 1514–1516 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/eye.2008.224
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/eye.2008.224
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