SBS
Shaken baby syndrome (SBS), also termed abusive head trauma (AHT), denotes a cluster of infant injuries—subdural hematomas, retinal hemorrhages, and encephalopathy—attributed by proponents to violent caregiver shaking without external impact, serving as a basis for diagnosing non-accidental trauma.[1][2]Biomechanical assessments, however, demonstrate that shaking-induced angular accelerations fall below thresholds required to inflict such damage absent neck fracture or blunt force, as infant head-to-body proportions and muscle weakness limit force transmission to levels seen in experimental injury models.[3][4]
Systematic reviews, including those by independent agencies, conclude insufficient scientific evidence supports the triad's exclusivity to shaking, with alternative etiologies like coagulopathies, infections, or perinatal complications mimicking findings and confounding attributions to abuse.[5][6]
These evidentiary gaps have prompted judicial reversals of convictions, critiques of the diagnosis as presumptive rather than probabilistic, and calls for rigorous differential diagnostics over reliance on historical caretaker admissions or exclusion of natural causes.[7][8][9]