Purpose: To examine the comprehensive ophthalmologic experience with the sh
aken baby syndrome at one medical center, including clinical findings, auto
psy findings, and the outcome of survivors.
Design: Retrospective, noncomparative case series.
Participants: One hundred twenty-three children admitted from January 1987
through December 1998 for subdural hematomas of the brain secondary to abus
e were included,
Methods: Clinical features of eye examinations of the patients during their
admission and after discharge and histopathologic observations for patient
s who died were retrieved from medical records and statistically analyzed.
Main Outcome Measures: Visual response and pupillary response on initial ex
amination, fundus findings, final vision, neurologic outcome of survivors,
and death.
Results: Ninety percent of the patients had ophthalmologic assessments. Ret
inal hemorrhages were detected in 83% of the examined children. The retinal
hemorrhages were bilateral in 85% of affected children and varied in type
and location. Nonophthalmologists missed the hemorrhages in 29% of affected
patients. Poor visual response, poor pupillary response, and retinal hemor
rhage correlated strongly with the demise of the child. One child who died
had pigmented retinal scars from previous abuse, a condition not previously
observed histopathologically to our knowledge. One fifth of the survivors
had poor vision, largely the result of cerebral visual impairment. Severe n
eurologic impairment correlated highly with loss of vision.
Conclusions: Shaken baby syndrome causes devastating injury to the brain an
d thus to vision. Retinal hemorrhages are extremely common, but vision loss
is most often the result of brain injury. The patient's visual reaction an
d pupillary response on presentation showed a high correlation with surviva
l. Good initial visual reaction was highly correlated with good final visio
n and neurologic outcome. According to the literature, when retinal hemorrh
ages are found in young children, the likelihood that abuse occurred is ver
y high. Nonophthalmologists' difficulty in detecting retinal hemorrhages ma
y be an important limiting factor in identifying shaken babies so they can
be protected from further abuse. (C) 2000 by fhe American Academy of Ophtha
lmology.