Shaken Baby Syndrome: A Case Report

Abstract

Shaken baby syndrome is a serious neurotrauma related to an important morbidity and mortality. It occurs, in
general, following the shake of a child aged less than one year. It combines variably an under dural bleeding with
a meningeal bleeding, diffused axonal injuries and an ocular hemorrhage.
We report the case of a six-month-old child who was found dead in his bed by his parents. An autopsy was
conducted to specify the exact cause of death. It revealed a meningeal hemorrhage. The anatomopathologic exam
of the eyeballs found a retinal hemorrhage. These observations raised the diagnosis of Shaken Baby Syndrome.
The father, questioned by the police authorities hereafter, confessed that he had shaken his son several times.
We conclude that the presence of a meningeal hemorrhage without external traumatic injury or direct traumatic
notion or pathological background must raise the diagnosis. The ocular examination and the eyeballs’
anatomopathologic analysis, in case of death, have a major contribution to the diagnosis.