Retinal hemorrhages occur frequently in association with abusive head trauma.1 The injuries are venous
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in origin and, as such, are similar to the retinal hemorrhages which frequently occur in full-term neonates after vaginal delivery. Because retinal hemorrhages in child abuse frequently are associated with intracranial bleeding, we questioned the possibility of a relationship between parturitional retinal hemorrhages and concurrent intracranial injuries.
To answer this question we designed a prospective study in which we performed magnetic resonance imaging on 10 randomly selected full-term neonates in whom the presence of retinal hemorrhages was confirmed on fundascopic examination by a pediatric ophthalmologist.