Unusual presentations of child abuse: A report of two cases and the role of imaging

Abstract

Insufficient attention has been paid to child abuse in Nigeria, where corporal punishment is still acceptable both at home and in the wider public including schools. This is notlimited to the parents; these punitive measures can also be undertaken by the extended family, caregivers, and neighbors. Mild to extreme force is allowed particularly when the crime involves tarnishing the family image. We hereby report two cases of extreme discipline that can be termed as a form of child abuse to draw the attention of clinicians and radiologists to other possible findings aside from those already reported in literature.

Keywords

• Child abuse
• computed tomography
• foreign body abscess
• intrapulmonary aberrant needles
• ultrasound