“Physicians often misdiagnose bone fractures caused by child abuse as accidental breaks, particularly if the child is male and the doctor is not a pediatrician, a new study found.”
“Of children who suffered fractures from abuse, about 20% had at least one previous medical visit during which a doctor missed signs of the problem (95% CI 15.8 to 26.0), according to a report published online Nov. 30 in Pediatrics. It took a median of eight days after the initial visit before doctors correctly assessed abuse during a subsequent examination.”
“Doctors were most likely to misdiagnose abusive fractures if the patients were boys, had breaks in the limbs, or were seen in a primary care setting or general emergency room, as opposed to a pediatric emergency department.”
Read the rest of the article at Medpage or at Nov. 30 issue of Pediatrics:
Wendy Gwirtzman Lane, Howard Dubowitz, and Patricia Langenberg
Screening for Occult Abdominal Trauma in Children With Suspected Physical Abuse
Pediatrics, Dec 2009;
Cost of article is $12, $45 online
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