Pediatric Head Injury From Falls
Kathi Makoroff, MD
Updates by: Paul Round
When evaluating a child with head trauma, a clinician must know when inflicted trauma should be included in the differential diagnosis. It may be difficult to differentiate abusive head trauma from accidental injury since accidental falls are common occurrences in infants and children. In addition, falls or accidental injuries are frequently offered as explanations when abuse has occurred. It is therefore important to become familiar with the published literature regarding the severity and type of injuries sustained from children who have fallen from various objects and heights.
The Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center provides the following clinical update of literature, organized by types of falls and by mechanism of fall, specifically falls from beds, falls down stairs, falls in walkers, falls from heights and fatal falls.