Facts on Bruises / Black Eye

Everyone will have plenty of bruises at one time or another in their lives as they happen when some part of our body gets banged, twisted or pulled hard enough to damage the wall of blood vessels in our skin, in our muscle or around our bones. A ‘black eye’ is ‘bruising’ or blood leaking into the tissues surrounding your eye if you get hit there.

If this leaking of blood occurs near the skin – but the skin is not actually cut, so no blood can leak out – the blood stays under the skin and changes the colour of the skin. Most bruises start off as a kind of dark reddish brown, - caused by the colour of the blood that has leaked out into the tissues. Then, as bruises get older – they may get a greenish tinge caused by the blood breaking down into its different components.

Bruises gradually disappear over a number of days without needing to do anything – as the leaked blood gets digested by other cells in your body. Some bruises can be very big and painful however and putting an ‘ice pack’ of some kind (like a bag of peas from the fridge) on the bruised area as soon as possible it can help. A firm bandage on the bruise can also help a bruise getting too big

However ugly and painful at the time, bruises will all disappear in a few days or a week.