Health Topics
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Summary
A bruise is a mark on your skin caused by blood trapped under the surface. It happens when an injury crushes small blood vessels but does not break the skin. Those vessels break open and leak blood under the skin.
Bruises are often painful and swollen. You can get skin, muscle and bone bruises. Bone bruises are the most serious.
It can take months for a bruise to fade, but most last about two weeks. They start off a reddish color, and then turn bluish-purple and greenish-yellow before returning to normal. To reduce bruising, ice the injured area and elevate it above your heart. See your health care provider if you seem to bruise for no reason, or if the bruise appears to be infected.
- Bruises (Nemours Foundation)
-
Bruising Questions: The What, Why, and How of Bruises
(National Institutes of Health)
Also in Spanish
Treatments and Therapies
- Black Eye: First Aid (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) Also in Spanish
- Bruises, First Aid (VisualDX)
Specifics
- Black Eye (American Academy of Ophthalmology) Also in Spanish
- Bruising Hands and Arms (American Osteopathic College of Dermatology)
-
Immune Thrombocytopenia (ITP)
(National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)
Also in Spanish
Images
- Bruise healing - series (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
Clinical Trials
-
ClinicalTrials.gov: Contusions
(National Institutes of Health)
-
ClinicalTrials.gov: Hematoma
(National Institutes of Health)
Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)
- Article: Automatic recognition and differentiation of pulmonary contusion and bacterial pneumonia based...
- Article: Bone Bruise Patterns After Noncontact Anterior Cruciate Ligament Tears Differ Between...
- Article: Optimizing the detection and characterization of bruises using multispectral imaging.
- Bruises -- see more articles
Children
- Black Eyes (For Parents) (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish
- Immune Thrombocytopenia (For Parents) (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish
- Subconjunctival Hemorrhage (For Parents) (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish
- What's a Bruise? (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish
Teenagers
- Quadriceps Contusion (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish
Older Adults
- Easy Bruising: Why Does It Happen? (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) Also in Spanish
Patient Handouts
- Bleeding into the skin (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
- Bruise (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
The information on this site should not be used as a substitute for professional medical care or advice. Contact a health care provider if you have questions about your health.