Bruised legs

A bruised leg is a damage that is familiar to everyone without exception, regardless of age, social status or place of residence. Of course, children and sportsmen are most often affected by foot injuries, these are their "professional" risks. However, all other categories of the inhabitants of the planet even once faced with a bruised leg. Do not hurt unless those who constantly occupy a horizontal position, although you can also hit and lying on the couch. As a rule, it is impossible to damage the entire leg, and if this happens, the injury falls into a completely different category.

The knees are usually injured, often the shins and phalanges of the fingers are bruised. These are the most vulnerable parts of the lower limbs. One should be attentive to injuries, as a bruise can be more threatening injury, for example, rupture of a ligament, bone fracture, dislocation of the joint.

The contusion of the leg can be divided conditionally according to the location of the injury: 

• A bruised leg in the hip is characterized by sharp pain, swelling. Feel the area of damage painful, often the palpation of the seal. The bruise of this place is often accompanied by the restriction of the function of the knee, pain can also be given there. A severe bruise of the hip can develop into a heterotopic ossification - the germination of bone tissue at an untypical milking site. Treatment, as a rule, is conservative with the help of a standard bandage and the imposition of a cold compress. Then you can apply local products containing resorptive and anti-inflammatory substances - ointments with NSAIDs, extracts of horse chestnut, heparin. In severe pain syndrome, an anesthetic block can be prescribed. 
• A bruised leg in the knee joint area is most common both in everyday life and in other life spheres - sports, work, leisure. Despite the seeming harmlessness, a bruised leg in this part can be fraught with a rupture of the cartilaginous joint (meniscus), hemarthrosis (accumulation of blood in the joint cavity) and other equally complex consequences of trauma. The knee joint is very complex in structure, so any part of it can be injured - both cruciate ligaments, and patella, and its other components. To more accurately determine what is damaged, it is better to seek help from a doctor, especially with severe pain and immobility of the knee joint. The diagnosis is made on the basis of examination and collection of anamnesis, including an X-ray.

How is the bruised leg treated?

If the foot injury is insignificant, the following measures are shown: 

• Applying an elastic bandage and ensuring the rest, immobility of the entire leg; 
• The leg is raised, ensuring the flow of blood to the damaged area; 
• Mandatory cold bandage, compress; 
• It is possible to take analgesic drugs orally (orally).

In more serious situations, the knee injury is treated under the supervision of a surgeon.

• A bruised leg in the area of the phalanx of the finger often occurs in the summer, when the foot is open and vulnerable. As a rule, soft tissues are injured, less often small tendons of fingers. Primary care is standard - peace, cold, bandage.
• The bruise of the foot in the ankle is most painful, since there are many nerve endings in the bone tissue, the periosteum is simply covered with them. If the hemorrhage (hematoma) has joined, the pain can become intolerable. It is important to differentiate this trauma with a fracture or fracture. In the case of a simple bruise, an anesthetic ointment is applied, rest of the entire leg is secured, a tight bandage is applied and necessarily cold.

There are several general binding rules that help to treat a bruised foot in the first 24 hours after an injury: 

• Strongly forbidden rubbing, applying warming ointments, gels. 
• Mobility is eliminated, at least during the first 24 hours; 
• Puncture swelling is unacceptable, even if they develop rapidly and under the skin accumulates fluid; 
• You can not tighten the site of the bruise, because the already broken blood circulation will be impossible in this case. 

Self-diagnostics in the form of axial loads, tapping, squats and so on are excluded.

Bruised legs: what can you do yourself?

• Ensure rest and complete immobility of the injured leg; 
• Apply a tightening (not tight) fixation bandage with the help of elastic material; 
• On the top of the bandage attach any cold at hand - ice, a bottle with strongly chilled water, in extreme cases, a wet, cold compress. The cold patch should be changed frequently so that it does not turn into a thermal one; 
• With strong pain, you can take a light analgesic once. Then you should call a doctor or seek help yourself. A strong analgesic should not be taken, since the overall clinical picture may not be clear in view of the absence of characteristic pain. 
• If the bruise of the foot does not pose a threat, the next day the cold is canceled and heat-dry bandages applied, warming, absorbing ointments, and anti-inflammatory substances applied. Also compresses from alcohol-containing solutions are effective (they can not be kept for more than 2 hours in order to avoid skin burns).

The bruise of the foot, despite its ubiquity, is not a scratch, which should not be taken into account. The symptomatology of the injury can be lubricated and hide under itself more serious damage. Therefore, if independent treatment within three days does not give dynamic results, you should seek the help of a specialist - a surgeon, an orthopedist.