Abusive head trauma (AHT) induced by shaking may result in death or permanent neurologic disability, including encephalopathy, mental retardation, cerebral palsy, cortical blindness, seizure disorders, and learning disabilities. The aim of this study was to detect the numbers of the published articles about “AHT” and “child neglect and abuse (CNA)” in Turkey and the world and the changes observed over time. A systematic literature search was performed for articles published between January 1945 and December 2010 in the Web of Science. Key words utilized were “child” and “abuse or neglect or violence or shaken baby syndrome or abusive head trauma or Munchausen by proxy”. Articles giving a keyword as “shaken baby syndrome” were included in AHT. There were 17,241 papers about CNA and 737 (4.3% of CNA) papers about AHT. One hundred thirty-one papers about CNA and 5 papers about AHT (3.8% of CNA) originated from Turkey. Regardless of the types of articles, published articles about CNA increased tremendously, from 70 to 1322, between 1990 and 2009. Similarly, published articles about AHT increased from 9 to 96 between 1995 and 2008. In conclusion, published articles on these topics showed an increase over the last two decades.

Keywords: istismara bağlı kafa travması, sarsılmış bebek sendromu.