A human body consists of a large web of blood vessels that regulates the proper flow of blood throughout the body. It is essential for a healthy body that there is an appropriate supply of oxygenated blood flows through the vessels, and for which these blood vessels need to be intact.
Hematoma is one of the conditions for which blood vessels in our body is responsible. During their late adulthood or after they reach their menopause phase, women may experience hematoma on their legs, arms, or other parts of the body. Although the condition isn’t harmful, it could indeed indicate some severe health conditions.
Hematoma is a condition that occurs due to the result of damaged large blood vessels. Hematoma appears as a black spot on a particular area where the blood has collected outside of the larger blood vessels. Although it seems when there is some injury to a person’s body, it might not hurt the way a bruising ache due to injury.
Usually, blood vessel walls might break due to specific injury; hence the blood flows down to the other tissues surrounding the blood vessels and leads to dark-colored bruising on the particular body part.
A hematoma is known to occur at any of the blood vessels such as veins or arteries too. But the appearance and problem change depending on the location of the condition. The condition is known to be similar to hemorrhage, but the only difference found is that bleeding leads to the ongoing flow of internal blood; here, the blood forms a clot at a specific place.
Differentiating between Bruises and Hematoma
When experiencing a traumatic injury that causes a dark-colored bruise on their body, people confuse it with Hematoma. But there sure are differences in both the conditions. A bruise is more likely to heal on its own when a person meets with an accident.
A bruise appears when a leak of blood from the small blood vessels leads to a purple color, or a darker spot appears on the skin visible to the eyes. As the injury begins to heal, the color becomes lighter or yellower, finally disappearing altogether.
On the other hand, hematoma appears darker in color due to blood leakage from the large blood vessels. As the condition is left untreated, it soon seems to be redder, causing a severe infection to tissues or organs in the body.
Hematoma is majorly rare in people unless they met something severely traumatic or have deficiencies in their body, such as anemia. Otherwise, bruises are harmless and recover on their own with time and bodily mechanisms.
The various types of Hematoma
There are several types of hematoma, depending on the location they have occurred and how they will affect the body as they are left untreated.
- Septal Hematoma
It is the result of a broken nose or severe injury to the nose. If a person with septal hematoma leaves it untreated, it might lead to several nasal problems in the future.
- Ear Hematoma or Aural Hematoma
It appears between the ear cartilage or the skin on top of it. This type of hematoma is visible on those who regularly have a blow to their head, such as an athlete or wrestler. Otherwise, the condition could occur in someone who had a severe accident or got injured in a fight.
- Spinal epidural Hematoma
It occurs when an injury is causing a break in the blood vessel walls between the spinal cord’s lining and the vertebrae.
- Intracranial epidural Hematoma
It occurs when an injury caused by trauma occurs between the skull plate and the lining on the brain’s outer.
- Subungual Hematoma
The subungual hematoma appears under the fingernail due to hardly hitting your nail with something or any other traumatic injury on it.
- Hepatic Hematoma
Hepatic Hematoma occurs in the liver when there is any injury in this organ.
- Subdural Hematoma
A subdural hematoma occurs when due to an injury, a blood clot is causing a break in blood vessels between the brain tissue and the brain’s internal lining. It takes about 72 hours for the subdural hematoma to show signs of its occurrence.
- Subcutaneous Hematoma
This hematoma occurs just under the skin, mainly near the skin’s surface, where there are small veins.
What causes Hematoma?
The only reason a hematoma could occur is due to any traumatic injury, which leads to blood leakage from the large blood vessels when the damage leads to breaking the blood vessel wall. The leaking blood further causes a hematoma that forms a blood clot surrounding the other tissues, appearing like a dark spot or bruise.
The reason behind a condition like a hematoma could be a severe accident, falling from somewhere of much height, or hitting the specific body part from something. There are times when any surgery is done, such as dental surgery, which could, later on, cause hematoma due to damage to the surrounding tissue of that area.
People who are into blood thinning medication or anticoagulation therapy might experience hematoma and bleeding issues. Women experience hematoma at a certain age without any identifiable cause or damage or injury to the blood vessel.
Some known symptoms of Hematoma
People who recently met with an accident must keep in touch with their doctors to know if there are any symptoms of hematoma that has been left untreated and could cause severe issues in the future.
Sometimes an internal hematoma may prove to be dangerous, especially in the brain leading to life-threatening. The signs might not appear immediately, and thus it is necessary to observe them from time to time. Some of the symptoms one must look for are:
- A headache which is turning severe day by day
- the feeling of tenderness in the area
- a sense of warmth in the affected area
- discoloration of the skin in the affected area
- severe pain
- inability to swallow
- inability to move your arms or legs
- drowsy feeling
- loss of consciousness
- loss of hearing
- uneven pupils
- lightheadedness
What are the ways to treat Hematoma?
The best way to treat hematoma is to let it heal for a significant period as the blood vessel absorbs the blood on its own, causing the bruise to disappear completely. If the area of hematoma is a toenail or fingernail, or any other soft tissue, ice works the best by applying it with a towel wrapped around or an ice pack available in the market.
Doctors recommend medications to help ease the pain, but they also recommend not to take pain killers, especially the ones which lead to blood thinking, which makes the hematoma even worse. The other precautions that could be taken are to wrap the area with the bandage so that there remains a grip in the skin, helping heal the wound and not let the vessel get opened again.
Surgery is an option taken by medical experts only in an extreme condition to drain out the hematoma; otherwise, the conventional ways work most of the time to cure hematoma in an individual.
It is best to consult a doctor if the pain becomes severe and the redness keeps increasing. If it is left untreated, especially a hematoma in the brain, it could cause severe infection. It may not be visible until specific imaging scans are done to observe the damage caused by a particular accident.
