Purpose: To report the characteristics of Japanese shaken baby syndrome (SBS) in a regional Japanese children's hospital and verify previously reported idiosyncratic features that differ from those of SBS in Western countries: (1) a considerably higher frequency of mothers as perpetrators, (2) older ages of abusive parents, and (3) a higher rate of premature infant birth.
Methods: We reviewed medical charts obtained between 2002 and 2012 at Nagano Children's Hospital, Japan.
Results: Thirty-seven SBS cases with abusive head trauma were found, among which 11 (30 %) of the perpetrators were mothers, 9 (24 %) fathers, 3 (8 %) brothers, and 14 (37 %) involved both parents. A history of premature birth was present in 2 (5 %) of the cases. The mean age of the mother was 32.4 years and that of the father was 31.3 years.
Conclusion: The clinical characteristics of Japanese SBS in this study are largely comparable to those seen in Western countries. Compared with the previously reported idiosyncratic features, there was a decreased predominance of mothers as perpetrators of SBS, suggestive of an increasing culpability of fathers. We also noticed that the ratio of premature births was more similar to those seen in Western surveys, while the mean ages of abusive Japanese parents remained older. Such varying results warrant a further nationwide survey.