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Tardieu's syndrome

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A syndrome of repeated intentional injuries inflicted on infants and young children, usually by their parents (most often), guardians, or other caretakers. It includes bruises confined to the buttocks and lower back, lash mark, trauma by the use of heat and water, cigarette burns, traumatic alopecia; fractures, often multiple but inflicted at different times, and subdural hematomas leading to coma, convuslions and increased cranial pressure; intraabdominal injuries, most commonly liver or spleen. Malnutrition and other signs of neglect can be present.

Other forms of this syndrome are the whiplash shaken infant syndrome and the Münchhausen syndrome by proxy.

Bibliography

  • A. Tardieu:
    Étude médico-legale sur les sévices et mauvais traitement exercés sur des enfants.
    Annales d’hygiène publique et de médecine légale, Paris, 1860, 13: 361-398.
  • C. H. Kempe, Frederic N. Silverman, Brandt F. Steele, William Droegemuller,
    Henry K. Silver:
    The Battered Child Syndrome.
    Journal of the American Medical Association, 1962, 181: 17-24.
  • J. Caffey:
    The parent-infant traumatic stress syndrome: (Caffey-Kempe syndrome), (battered babe syndrome).
    American Journal of Roentgenology, Leesburg, Virginia, 1972, 114: 218-229.
  • F. N. Silverman:
    Unrecognized trauma in infants, the battered child syndrome, and the syndrome of Ambroise Tardieu.
    Radiology, Easton, Pennsylvania, 1972, 104: 337-353.
We thank Bo Elle, Denmark, for information submitted.

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