TY - JOUR
PY - 2020//
TI - A review on four different paths to respiratory arrest from brain injury in children; implications for child abuse
JO - Journal of forensic and legal medicine
A1 - Paek, Domyung
A1 - Kwon, Dae-Ik
SP - e101938
EP - e101938
VL - 71
IS -
N2 - Child abuse was suspected in a case of out-of-hospital arrest with minor brain injuries. Confronted with continued disputes on pathophysiologic correlates even after autopsy, to assist the differentiation of potential causes of sudden cardiopulmonary arrest in children, we tried to identify the mechanism of cardiopulmonary arrest in brain injuries from different causes. Systematic review was carried out in two stages. First, major external causes of cardiopulmonary arrest among children and infants were identified from Pubmed and Google Scholar search, and then the exact sequence of cardiopulmonary arrest, and their pathophysiologic features were identified based on articles of animal models of brain injury. From the review, we have identified four major groups of external circumstances for rather sudden cardiopulmonary arrest from brain damage in children, after excluding congenital and other unrelated diseases; 1) impact brain apnea, 2) anoxic insults, 3) drug or other substance induced central nervous system depression, and 4) traumatic brain damage. Each group has different features in the course of cardiac and respiratory arrests. Based on this review of pathophysiologic features of cardio-respiratory responses from external causes, we have presented a suspected, but unlikely, child abuse case of respiratory arrest from brain injury. The social consequences of both unknowingly missing, and falsely incriminating the abuse can be grave, and the identification of the mechanisms of cardiopulmonary arrest from brain injury can be important for the differentiation of various potential causes.
Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 1752-928X UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jflm.2020.101938 ID - ref1 ER -