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What Does Large Bruises With No Pain After Accidental Fall,indicate?

Posted on Fri, 24 Jan 2014

Question: Fell on left side (arm) while skiing but did not notice any major pain. 4-5 days later had large bruises on upper and lower arm but again, not pain. 12 days after the fall, while driving the car with my left arm resting on the arm rest, I felt pressure in area of the elbow and found that I could not bend my arm, again no pain other than the discomfort of the swelling. Went to the ER where I was examined and found the elbow area to be very swollen and deep purple bruising centered on elbow as well as above and below elbow. Dr. did not know how to explain sudden swelling, called it a hematoma, told me to ice the area 20 minutes every two hours. Swelling decreased after icing and I could move my arm at the elbow again (about 85%). 16 days after fall swelling continued to decrease and bruising diminished some but pain started. 16-21 days after fall I have throbbing pain (about 15 seconds every 1.5 minutes) and sever surge of pain in the arm, both at elbow area and above and below, when I lower my arm or bend over. What do you think? The ER Dr. took Xray that showed no bone injuries, etc.

Answered by Dr. Vivek Chail (1 hour later)

Brief Answer: Please find detailed answer below Detailed Answer: Hi, Thanks for writing in to us. I have read through your query in detail. Sorry to hear about your fall. If your X ray is normal, you are right in saying that there is no significant bone fracture or dislocation. However, the possibility of soft tissue injury and hematoma (bleeding) might have occurred. It is important to know if you are taking any blood thinning medication like aspirin or were taking the same after your fall. If yes then that can cause a bleeding tendency in the area where there is injury. A decrease in swelling and pain on icing shows that the injury is healing with time. Any injury may take a while to heal completely. The little pain and movement restriction you are experiencing need to be evaluated by an orthopaedician and treated by medications and physiotherapy and only if felt necessary a MRI scan may be done to see if there is any significant persisting soft tissue or ligament injury. Hope your query is answered. Do write back if you have any doubts. Regards, Dr.Vivek

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar