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OBJECTIVE: To examine patterns of physical injury associated with intimate partner violence among women presenting to emergency room departments. DATA SOURCES: Systemic searches of Medline, EMBASE, and CINHAHL electronic databases from their earliest entries up to February, 2008. Reference lists from the studies included from the electronic database search were reviewedÌýfor publishedÌýand unpublished studies. The authors contactedÌýstudy authors regardingÌýpublished and unpublished information.REVIEW METHODS: After titles and abstracts were initially screened by a single reviewer, two reviewersÌýscreened the remaining full-text articles for inclusion into the review.ÌýStudies were included if theyÌýpertained in whole or in part to women who presented to an emergency department because of IPV and reported the location or types of injuries. Studies without comparison groups ofÌýnon-IPV women and case series/case reports were excluded. The authors performed a meta-analysis of theÌýavailable data using the random effects model.ÌýRESULTS:ÌýThe authors 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 oddsÌýratio (OR) 24 (95% CI [15, 38]. Thoracic, abdominal, or pelvic injuries were non-specific for IPV (pooled lower extremity injuries OR 1.07 (95% CI [0.89, 1.29]). Injuries inÌýthe upper extremities were suggestive of non-IPV etiology (pooled OR 0.51 (95% CI [0.41, 0.54]), as were lower extremity injuries (pooled OR 0.15 (95% CIÌý[0.04, 0.56]).ÌýCONCLUSIONS: Among women presenting to emergency room departments,Ìýunwitnessed head, neck, or facial injuries are significant markers for IPV. Conversely, extremity injuriesÌýare less likely to have been the consequence of IPV.ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý