Skeletal survey

Abstract

Although the child population in Japan is declining, the number of child abuse notifications is increasing year by year. Child abuse cannot be ignored at medical institutions, and appropriate measures are required. Many cases of child abuse that visit medical institutions are suspected of child abuse based on the “main complaint”, “interview”, and “physical examination” in the outpatient department, and then further tests are conducted. One of them is Skeletal survey by plain X-ray. Skeletal survey is recommended mainly when there is a possibility of abuse under the age of 2 years, and further fractures may be found. If new findings are added, it will greatly affect the subsequent policy and thus can be said to be one of the most important tests. Abusive Head Trauma (AHT) is one condition that must not be overlooked. And symptoms at mild times such as vomiting, moodiness, poor feeding and others are non-specific, and are often difficult to distinguish from disease. Therefore, in daily medical care, they should always be discriminated so as not to overlook child abuse such as AHT.