How to Treat a Bruise

Video Transcript

CAPT. JOE BRUNI: Hi. I'm Captain Joe Bruni, with over 30 years of firefighting and emergency medical service experience. What we're going to go over and discuss is how to properly treat the simple bruise. Most of us are all familiar with a simple bruise. Simple bruises are caused by blood leaking into the tissues just underneath the surface of the skin. The proper way to treat this type of condition would be to take something like a commercial cold pack, or even ice, and place it over the bruise site, which will help to reduce swelling and pain. If you're going to use something like ice, do not place it directly on to the skin. Use some type of cloth, or other types of material that can be placed over the skin, before the ice or cold compress is applied. Once the cold compress or ice is applied, it should only be administered for approximately 20 minutes at a time, and then removed for short periods of time, so as not to cause any type of tissue damage to the surface of the skin. The basic simple bruise can be treated by simply applying ice to reduce swelling and pain. And if ice or cold compress is used, some type of material or cloth should be placed over top of the area to help reduce the chances of skin damage or tissue damage to that area, and then removed after every 20 minutes.