Sentinel Injuries and Reporting Child Abuse

April is Child Abuse Awareness Month, so in this episode I am speaking with Dr. Antonia Chiesa, a Child Abuse Medicine Specialist. We discuss sentinel injuries and how to navigate evaluating and reporting these injuries, positive news about the demographics and trends in the US regarding child abuse rates, and the broader conversation about child abuse and child health outside of the acute setting.

I would like to add a clarification here regarding a statement I make in this episode - I talk about the low rates of child abuse in Costa Rica, where I live, and the social protective factors here. This is in reference to child physical abuse, but I did not talk about sex trafficking, including minors, which is rampant in Central America and Costa Rica. We will leave that topic for another conversation.

For a review of the TEN4-FACES Clinical Decision Rule for Sentinel Bruises, this recent article does a great job breaking down sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values:

Validation of a Clinical Decision Rule to Predict Abuse in Young Children Based on Bruising Characteristics