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Easy Bruising
Bruises occur as a result of blood leaking out of the blood vessels within the skin. Bruises are common in children when they go about their normal activities. They tend to fall while playing, run into each other or bump into furniture. Bruises that need worrying are those which occur spontaneously or that are out of proportion to the injury.
Abnormal bleeding can be caused by:
- disorder of blood vessels (vascular disorders)
- quantitative or qualititative problems of blood cells called platelets or
- defective blood coagulation process
Platelets are cells produced by the bone marrow. Following blood vessel injury, platelets will stick to the exposed blood vessel lining (subendothelial connective tissue) to form a mechanical plug. Fibrin enmeshes the platelet aggregates at the site of vascular injury and convert the rather unstable platelet plug to form definitive stable hemostatic plug. The production of fibrin involves a biological amplification system called the coagulation pathway. The operation of this system requires local concentration of circulating coagulation factors at the site of injury. At present there are14 known coagulation factors and a defect in any of these factors may disturb the coagulation system and cause bleeding problems. There are many diseases that can cause easy bruising in children, some are more common than others. The common ones are:
