5 Things You Need to Know About a Bone Bruise

1. Bone Bruise Basics

A bone bruise is a lot more painful and the pain lasts longer than the giant swelling of a bruise on the skin or in the muscle. It is one step before a fracture. The bone has a cortex with interconnected fibers and calcium fills the spaces between the fibers. When the bone strikes something, those fibers break and leak out the contents held between them. If enough fibers break then the result is a fracture of the bone. A bone bruise occurs when only a few of the fibers break.

2. Bone Bruises Seem to Stay Forever

Bruised bones are extremely painful and, unfortunately, the pain lasts and lasts. The younger and more in shape you are the sooner the bruise tends to heal. The amount of time varies, just as the degree of bruising can. While discoloration and swelling subsides, the pain of a bone bruise remains. Some bruises clear in a few days, while others linger and pain finally subsides in a few months.

3. Treatment for a Bone Bruise

Check with your doctor if you continue to have intense pain. Even if you believe it is just a bone bruise, a confirmation is the best preventive medicine from further damage. Immediately after the bone bruise, apply ice packs on the area. Rest the area and take an over the counter pain medication like acetaminophen, aspirin or ibuprofen.

4. Diagnosis of a Bone Bruise

Bone bruises don't show up on X-rays, but X-rays can confirm that a fracture isn't present. Therefore, the doctor can rule out the possibility with its use. If the pain is great or there is a lot of swelling and discoloration, the doctor may order a MRI that can detect and image a bone bruise. This is the only way to find it aside from anecdotal information.

5. The Future Starts Now

Scientists investigate the possibility that bone bruises are predecessors of future problems. Recent studies began when scientist saw the bone bruise, hidden from their view before the invention of the MRI. The study of bone bruises is new and based on the new technology. One doctor did biopsies of known previous bruises when he did reconstructive surgery and found degenerative tissue changes in the area. Bone bruising and ACL injuries tend to occur together frequently. The MRI allows doctors to check for areas affected that surround a bone bruise. Studies that connect bone bruises to arthritis of the joint near the area affected take place today.