Cerebral contusional tears as a marker of child abuse--detection by cranial sonography.

A series of 6 infants subjected to child abuse is presented in whom contusional tears of subcortical white matter were detected during life by intracranial sonography. The sonographic appearances of this highly pathognomonic marker of shaking injury are described for the first time and their significance discussed. On the basis of our experience we suggest that high resolution cranial sonography is an extremely valuable part of the diagnostic work up in cases of suspected non-accidental injury.