In simple terms, hematoma occurs when blood is collected outside of a certain blood vessel. This usually occurs when the blood vessel’s (this also includes a vein, artery and capillary) wall has been victim to some sort of damage, which leads to a leak into its tissue, a place where blood does not belong. This damage leads to the leaking of blood and hence forces blood to travel to areas where it should not be. The hematoma is usually a small size but even the smallest drop of blood, a large amount of swelling can be experienced.

In the human body, the blood vessels are always under repairing. Small and insignificant injuries are always be faced, or at least routinely, and the body will always be busy in repairing any sort of damage that may be caused to the wall of the vessel simply be creating a break of any type of blood clot and creating fibrin patches. What is fibrin you must all be wondering? Fibrin patchesare created by the body to reduce the loss of blood and helps the body to survive in harsh conditions like hypothermia etc. However, the treatment to such injuries is not always successful and this is because of the extent of the injury. If the injury seems to be too extensive, the repairing will fail and this will result in a continuous flow of blood into unchartered areas. Also, if the pressure of the blood, which is leaking, is somewhat powerful or forceful, the blood cannot be stopped by the body’s self-treatment, ending up with a blood leaking and expanding the size and magnitude of the hematoma.

The blood that does escape from your stream of blood causes irritation and may also cause inflammation in that specific body part. This will also be associated with swelling, redness and pain. There are no set symptoms for such an injury because the symptoms of something of this nature depend on what area of your body has experienced such damage. We will look more into this later in the article. Another determinant of the symptoms of a hematoma is the location, size and whether they have caused any type of edema not. For those of you who are new to medical jargon, edema is caused when swelling has been caused by a fluids being accumulated in the tissues of your body, normally found under the skin.

Now there are some grounds that we need to establish before we move on regarding a hematoma. A bruise, which is professionally known as an ecchymosis, occurs when blood leaks out of blood vessel because the wall is ruptured caused by an injury. Such an injury is also known as a contusion. However, the difference between an ecchymosis and a hematoma is that a bruise is flat in shape but the hematoma occurs in more of a three dimensional shape, occurring in any organ of the body and not only under the skin.

Now for a deeper look into what exactly creates or causes such an injury. The most common reason for a hematoma is trauma. When the word trauma is mentioned anywhere, people automatically start to think about head injuries, accidents, bones that have been broken or wounds from a gunshot. There is more to it than just these reasons. Even if you have sneezed very forcefully, you can cause trauma to your tissues as well as twisting a part of your body, like the most occurring twisting of your ankle. When you damage a blood vessel, it will leak into the tissue that surrounds it. The blood that enters such areas usually clots up here. The science is simple: the more you bleed the bigger the formation of the clot. Another thing that may also have a role to play in a hematoma is any weak vessel in your body, more specifically, in that area. If you have a weak/fragile blood vessel, it may suddenly start leaking for no reason at all. Some risk is also caused for people who take blood thinners that may be in the form of aspirin etc. Such medication increases the possibility for sudden blood leaks and also for hematomas because the human body cannot repair blood vessels efficiently.

This paragraph will look into the symptoms of something like a hematoma. Hematomas lead to irritation and hence, inflammation. Even though we mentioned earlier in the writing that the symptoms of a hematoma depend on the size and location of it, we will still look into some general symptoms. The most common symptoms are swelling and inflammation, which further includes swelling, pain and redness. Hematomas that occur in areas like the muscles, skin or soft tissues are cured over time. The feel of the clot starts offas feeling soft and spongy, but eventually starts to flatten as the shape begins to change and the fluids start draining. Once this starts to happen, the color also starts to change, representing positive signs of being on the way of complete curing.

Some difficulties and complications may occur with a hematoma, which revolve around things like inflammation and swelling. These two together will often lead to irritation to organs located adjacent to the area of the injury, which may ultimately crate even more complications. There is always the risk of infection because the injury is made of old blood. Since there is no blood supply to that specific area, there is the risk of bacteria colonizing there.

The treatment of such an injury can be explained by the acronym RICE that stands for rest, ice, compression and elevation. Giving yourself rest is the key to curing yourself as soon as possible along cooling the injury as it is caused by inflammation.The treatment of such a medical condition depends on the organ that has been hurt by the hematoma. Once this has been established, only then will a doctor actually opt for giving medications. Medications are also dependent on a person’s health condition.