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{
    "pk": 14759,
    "title": "Symptoms and Physical Exam Findings in Sexual Assault-related Non-fatal Strangulation",
    "subtitle": null,
    "abstract": "Objective:\n Our goal was to investigate the frequency of specific signs and symptoms following  sexual assault-related non-fatal strangulation (NFS) and to explore the interaction between assault  characteristics and physical exam findings.\nMethods:\n This retrospective observational study included all adults (>18 years) reporting  strangulation during sexual assault who presented for a forensic sexual assault exam at one of six  urban community hospitals contracted with a single forensic nurse agency. Demographic information,  narrative elements, and physical exam findings were abstracted from standardized sexual assault  reporting forms. We analyzed data with descriptive statistics and compared specific variables using  chi-square testing.\nResults:\n Of the 580 subjects 99% were female, with a median age of 27 (interquartile range 22-35  years). The most common injury location was the neck (57.2%), followed by the mouth (29.1%). We  found that 19.1% of the victims had no injuries evident on physical exam and 29.8% reported a loss  of consciousness. Eye/eyelid and neck findings did not significantly differ between subjects who  reported blows to the head in addition to strangulation and those who did not. The time that elapsed  between assault and exam did not significantly correlate with the presence of most head and torso  physical exam findings, except for nose injury (\nP\n = 0.02).\nConclusion:\n Slightly more than half of the victims who reported strangulation during sexual  assault had visible neck injuries. Other non-anogenital findings were present even less frequently,  with a substantial portion of victims having no injuries documented on physical exam. The  perpetrators’ use of blows to the head may account for many of the non-anogenital injuries  observed, but not for the neck and eye/eyelid injuries, which may be more specific to non-fatal  strangulation. More research is needed to definitively establish strangulation as the causal  mechanism for these findings, and to determine whether any long-term neurologic or vascular  sequelae resulted from the observed injuries.",
    "language": "en",
    "license": {
        "name": "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0",
        "short_name": "CC BY 4.0",
        "text": "Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.\r\n\r\nNo additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.",
        "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0"
    },
    "keywords": [
        {
            "word": "Sexual assault, intimate partner violence, non-fatal strangulation"
        }
    ],
    "section": "Women's Health",
    "is_remote": true,
    "remote_url": "https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9209v82p",
    "frozenauthors": [
        {
            "first_name": "Hannah",
            "middle_name": "H.",
            "last_name": "Spungen",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "UCLA Center for Health Sciences, Department of Emergency Medicine, Los Angeles, California",
            "department": "None"
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Karen",
            "middle_name": "M.",
            "last_name": "Bryan",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California",
            "department": "None"
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Carolyn",
            "middle_name": "J.",
            "last_name": "Sachs",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "UCLA Center for Health Sciences, Department of Emergency Medicine, Los Angeles, California\nUCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California",
            "department": "None"
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Malinda",
            "middle_name": "J.",
            "last_name": "Wheeler",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "Forensic Nurse Specialists, Long Beach, California",
            "department": "None"
        }
    ],
    "date_submitted": "2020-11-20T03:25:58Z",
    "date_accepted": "2020-11-20T03:25:58Z",
    "date_published": "2022-02-09T05:57:29Z",
    "render_galley": null,
    "galleys": [
        {
            "label": "",
            "type": "pdf",
            "path": "https://journalpub.escholarship.org/westjem/article/14759/galley/7510/download/"
        }
    ]
}