The role of radiology in child abuse

The role of radiology in child abuse is vital. The radiologist is required to differentiate trauma from other medical conditions, give an estimate of the age of the injury, suggest a possible mechanism of injury and highlight safeguarding concerns taking the age of the child into account. In 2014 in the author’s practice, of all the age groups admitted with safeguarding concerns who then went on to have a radiological skeletal survey (excluding those children who had suffered from sudden infant death), more than 50% were under one year of age. Age is an most important risk factor in abuse-related skeletal injury, with up to 75% of inflicted skeletal trauma occurring in children younger than three years.1 Accordingly, although this article largely relates to general paediatric medicine, the reader should remember that infants present a particularly vulnerable portion of the population and a large proportion of children who are admitted with safeguarding concerns.