The following is a summary of “Anoxic Brain Injury: A Subtle and Often Overlooked Finding in Non-Fatal Intimate Partner Strangulation,” published in the December 2024 issue of Emergency Medicine by Dugan et al.
Limited literature exists on identifying patients with anoxic brain injury who survived non-fatal intimate partner strangulation (NF-IPS), with varying reports of brain hypoxia symptoms before or after loss of consciousness (LOC).
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to describe how often symptoms of anoxic brain injury were experienced by individuals who had survived NF-IPS by using a standardized clinical assessment tool to gather information.
They assessed 191 unique patients (98% female, ages 18–68) who reported 267 strangulation events. A member of the Shasta Community Forensic Care Team used the Strangulation Hypoxia Anoxia Symptom TBI Assessment (SHASTA) tool for evaluation. Examination records were classified based on the presence or absence of hypoxia and anoxia symptoms. The STROBE checklist was applied in this manuscript.
The results showed that most patients were white (84.8%, n = 162), aged 18–30 years (41.9%, n = 80), female (97.9%, n = 187), and assaulted by male intimate partners (97.9%, n = 187). Among the 191 unique patients, 40 (20.9%) reported multiple strangulation events, with the number of events per patient ranging from 1 to 6. The clinic’s focus and its collaboration with local intimate partner violence services were also highlighted.
Investigators concluded that, within the sample, 49% of patients with amnesia did not recall losing consciousness, indicating that LOC as an imperfect measure of anoxia in patients with NF-IPS , and healthcare providers should assess for other hypoxia and amnesia symptoms using the SHASTA tool.
Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0736467924001914
