Purpose: To examine patterns of physical injury associated with intimate partner violence (IPV) among women presenting to emergency room departments.

Method: Systematic searches of Medline, EMBASE, and CINAHL electronic databases from their earliest entries up to February 2008. Reference lists from the studies included from the electronic database search were reviewed for published and unpublished studies. We contacted study authors regarding published and unpublished information. After titles and abstracts were initially screened by a single reviewer, two reviewers screened the remaining full-text articles for inclusion into the review. Studies were included if they pertained in whole or in part to women who presented to an emergency department because of IPV and reported the location or type of injuries. Studies without comparison groups of non-IPV women and case series/case reports were excluded. We performed a meta-analysis of the available data using the random effects model.

Results: We identified 262 potentially relevant titles and abstracts, of which 7 articles were included in the review. The association between head, neck, or facial injuries and IPV was higher among studies that excluded women with verifiable injuries such as witnessed falls or motor vehicle collisions (pooled odds ratio 24 (95%CI: 15 Ã^-¿½ 38)). Thoracic, abdominal, or pelvic injuries were non-specific for IPV (pooled odds ratio 1.07 (95% CI: 0.89 Ã^-¿½ 1.29)). Injuries in the upper extremities were suggestive of non-IPV etiology (pooled odds ratio 0.51 (95%CI: 0.41 Ã^-¿½ 0.54)), as were lower extremity injuries (pooled odds ratio 0.15 (95%CI: 0.04 Ã^-¿½ 0.56)).

Conclusion: Among women presenting to emergency room departments, unwitnessed head, neck, or facial injuries are significant markers for intimate partner violence. Conversely extremity injuries are less likely to have been the consequence of IPV.