• Gil Binenbaum, Cindy W Christian, Rebecca N Ichord, Gui-shaung Ying, Melissa A Simon, Kathleen Romero, Avrum N Pollock, and Brian J Forbes.
• Division of Ophthalmology, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Department of Ophthalmology, Perelman School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Electronic address: binenbaum@email.chop.edu.
• J AAPOS. 2013 Dec 1; 17 (6): 603-8.

PurposeTo evaluate associations between retinal hemorrhage severity and hypoxic-ischemic brain injury (HII) patterns by diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) in young children with head trauma.MethodsDW-MRI images of a consecutive cohort study of children under age 3 years with inflicted or accidental head trauma who had eye examinations were analyzed by two independent masked examiners for type, severity, and location of primary lesions attributable to trauma, HII secondary to trauma, and mixed injury patterns. Retinal hemorrhage was graded retrospectively on a scale from 1 (none) to 5 (severe).ResultsRetinal hemorrhage score was 3-5 in 6 of 7 patients with predominantly post-traumatic HII pattern and 4 of 32 who had traumatic injury without HII (P < 0.001) on DW-MRI imaging. Severe retinal hemorrhage was observed in absence of HII but only in inflicted injury. Retinal hemorrhage severity was correlated with HII severity (ρ = 0.53, P < 0.001) but not traumatic injury severity (ρ = -0.10, P = 0.50). HII severity was associated with retinal hemorrhage score 3-5 (P = 0.01), but traumatic injury severity was not (P = 0.37).ConclusionsDuring inflicted head injury, a distinct type of trauma occurs causing more global brain injury with HII and more severe retinal hemorrhages. HII is not a necessary factor for severe retinal hemorrhage to develop from inflicted trauma.Copyright © 2013 American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

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