Causes Of Easy Bruising

Any contusion caused by an injury that results in blood leaking from its vessels into the surrounding areas is called bruising. Bruising is not just the scrapes that you might get when you fall off the bike, it can also be an internal injury that bleeds and shows up as a patch of discoloured skin. The most common cause of bruising is an injury caused by a blunt object that results in the seeping of blood into the extracellular space. Bruises are graded according to their severity by the Harm scale. According to this scale, bruises are rated on a scale of 0-5 where 0 is assigned to light bruising and 5 to critical bruising. The area that has been bruised will display a bluish, red or purple colouration under the skin. This colouration occurs as a result of the breaking down of haemoglobin in the escaped blood. Bruises are generally named Ecchymosis, Purpura and Petechia based on their sizes. Bruises with diameters of 1 to 3 cms are called ecchymosis; those with diameters of 3mms to 1cm are called purpura and those with diameters lesser than 3mm are called petechia.

 

As explained above, bruises are results of injuries received from blunt objects. However, it should be noted that some people bruise more easily than others. There are some underlying causes for such a tendency to bruise and they are:

Cirrhosis of the liver is a condition where the liver fails to perform its functions as a result of an injury or over exposure to alcohol. The result is the inability of the liver to regenerate damaged tissues. This in turn leads to an obstruction in the flow of blood through the liver and the failure of the liver to produce proteins needed to help blood clot. This results in the person falling prey to easy bruising.

The bone marrow disorder that relates directly to easy bruising is called Thrombocytopenia. This occurs when the bone marrow fails to produce enough blood cells or when the number of destroyed blood cells is more than the number of cells created. This disorder leads to a condition where a person may bleed excessively due to the lack of clotting. When this bleeding occurs in the extracellular space, it will lead to easy bruising.

As the name suggests, this disorder is again related to the inability of the blood to clot or coagulate. This yet again becomes a cause for easy bruising.

Many heart patients are put on drugs that are aimed at improving the flow of blood by thinning it, so as to pass easily through clogged blood vessels. This medication is known as an anticoagulant. Since anticoagulants hamper the ability of blood to clot, any injury both internal and external results in excessive bleeding thus leading to excessive bruising. This is more prominent when the injury is internal.