Ensuring Appropriate Expert Testimony for Cases Involving the “Shaken Baby”

Abstract

For the past 50 years, the “shaken baby” syndrome (SBS) has been one of the many terms used to describe a form of abusive head trauma in children. The term now preferred is pediatric abusive head trauma (AHT), which is defined as “an injury to the skull or intracranial contents of an infant or young child (less than five years of age) due to inflicted blunt impact and/or violent shaking.”1, 2 This new term reflects the fundamental construct that certain forms of head trauma are intentionally inflicted. The incidence is estimated to be 20 to 30 cases per 100,000 children under one year of age with a case fatality rate exceeding 20% and significant disability for about two-thirds of the survivors. 1 In addition, AHT results in major healthcare costs for the survivors. (see Libby AM, Sills MR, Thurston NK, Orton HD. Costs of childhood physical abuse: comparing inflicted and unintentional traumatic brain injuries.