Internal bleeding

Internal bleeding is bleedingoccurring inside the body. It may be caused by high blood pressure(by causing blood vesselrupture) or other forms of injury, especially high speed decelerationoccurring during an automobile accident, which can cause organ rupture. Depending on where it occurs (e.g. the brain), internal bleeding can be a serious medical emergency, potentially causing deathif not given a proper treatment quickly.

Internal bleeding can be serious for two reasons:

• the blood can compress organs and cause their dysfunction (as can occur in haematoma)
• when it does not stop spontaneously, the loss of blood will cause hemorrhagic shock, which can lead to brain damageand death.

Internal bleedings are usually called hemorrhage, even though the term is general to all kinds of bleedings.

A minor case of internal bleeding is ecchymosis(a bruise): blood expands under the skin, causing discoloration.

Medical investigation is necessary to identify internal bleeding. The external signs are general signs of hypovolemicshock(see the article about shockfor more information).

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal+bleeding Wikipedia article Internal bleeding.