Relevance of Abusive Head Trauma to Intracranial Hemorrhages and Bleeding Disorders

Bleeding disorders and abusive head trauma (AHT) are associated with intracranial hemorrhage (ICH), including subdural hemorrhage (SDH). Because both conditions often present in young children, the need to screen for bleeding disorders would be better informed by data that include trauma history and are specific to young children. The Universal Data Collection database contains information on ICH in subjects with bleeding disorders, including age and trauma history. Study objectives were to (1) characterize the prevalence and calculate the probabilities of any ICH, traumatic ICH, and nontraumatic ICH in children with congenital bleeding disorders; (2) characterize the prevalence of spontaneous SDH on the basis of bleeding disorder; and (3) identify cases of von Willebrand disease (vWD) that mimic AHT.