Foot bruise: treatment with medications and folk remedies

Many people know firsthand what a foot bruise is. Athletes and children are most susceptible to this type of injury. Bruises are an unpleasant sensation, especially when it comes to your feet. This type of injury prevents a person from moving normally and often keeps them in bed for a week or two. The injury should not be accidental. Be sure to pamper yourself to avoid complications.

1. Foot bruise: symptoms
2. How to distinguish a foot fracture from a bruise?
3. First aid: what to do if you bruise your foot.
4. Diagnosis of suspected foot injury.
5. How to treat a foot bruise?
6. Painkillers
7. Foot bruise: folk remedies
8. Foot bruises: how long do they take to heal?

Foot bruise: symptoms

Timely detection and diagnosis are important in treatment. Look out for the following symptoms that indicate a foot bruise:

• Formation of edema at the site of injury, which will intensify over time;
• there will definitely be bleeding at the site of the bruise, the intensity of which depends on the force of the blow;
• the temperature at the site of swelling will be much higher;
• sometimes a person feels that the bruise is throbbing.

One of the main features of the pain syndrome during a bruise is acute pain after injury, which goes away over time. However, the discomfort does not subside at all, it only becomes dull. Another sign of a foot bruise is that the pain is so severe that it leads to constant dizziness, which also affects the vital functions of the person.

Treatment with traditional methods

To cure a foot bruise, treatment with folk remedies alone will not be enough. However, they work well in combination with traditional methods of treatment. However, to be sure of their effectiveness, you need to consult a podiatrist. Compresses made from onions bring good results. To prepare them, you need to peel the onion, finely chop it with a knife or grate it on a fine grater, put it on a bandage and apply it to the sore spot for one day. To achieve success, the procedure must be performed 3-4 times.

To make the hematoma resolve faster, you can apply a special ointment made from aloe pulp and sugar to it. To do this, you need to chop aloe (2-3 leaves) and add granulated sugar (200 g) to this pulp. After this, the mixture should be mixed well and left to infuse for 2-3 days. After this time, the product must be filtered, thereby getting rid of excess liquid. The resulting composition can be used to lubricate the hematoma.

However, the best remedy for any injury or bruise is prevention. To rid yourself of unpleasant symptoms, you should handle heavy objects with extreme care, be attentive when playing sports or doing housework, and also follow safety precautions when working in production.

How to distinguish a fracture from a foot bruise

In the first minutes after an injury, a person wonders what happened, a foot bruise or a fracture. From a medical point of view, the main difference between these two phenomena is that in the first case the soft tissues are affected, while in the second the bones are affected. However, during an injury it is impossible to accurately differentiate between the two, so be aware of other symptoms:

• If you have a bruise, you will be able to move the limb. In the event of a breakdown, this is almost impossible.
• Heavy bleeding indicates an open fracture. It can't be with a bruise.
• A bruise is characterized only by the appearance of swelling and hemorrhage. In case of a fracture, in addition to swelling, other deformities may occur.
• The pain with a bruise is not as severe as with a fracture and after it. Some time after the injury, the pain subsides, but does not completely disappear, becoming an unpleasant phenomenon.

These are the main differences between a bruise and a fracture. At first, it is quite difficult to determine the type of injury, since in two cases the person’s motor function is impaired, dizziness, sharp pain at the site of impact, and swelling occur. A severe injury to the foot is also accompanied by the appearance of a bruise.

The appearance of a hematoma

A hematoma is a consequence of hemorrhage in the soft tissues of the foot. Its size and shade will be primarily influenced by the force with which the blow was struck. When the subcutaneous fatty tissue is affected, the bruise usually appears immediately 1-3 days after the injury. If the damage is very deep, the hematoma may not manifest itself at all.

Doctors also note that the hematoma will gradually change its shade: a fresh one has a bright red tint, but a little later it may acquire a purple color. On days 4-5, the hematoma has a dark blue color, and after that it becomes slightly yellowish.

First aid: what to do if you bruise your foot

Effective treatment of a foot bruise is only possible with proper first aid in the first minutes after the injury. Correct actions will help reduce the level of pain and the size of the swelling. What should I do if my bruised foot is swollen and very painful?

If you bruise your foot, rest it and cool the injured area. The fact is that when an injury occurs, the temperature rises due to severe bleeding. Before you begin treatment for a foot bruise, you need to apply something cold to the injury site.

These basic steps will help you avoid severe swelling and other more unpleasant consequences:

• First of all, it is necessary to ensure complete rest of the injured limb. The victim should take a sitting or lying position.
• Place your foot on a small hill and try not to move it.
• Apply a cold object “on approach” - immediately after the injury for 10 minutes, give it a little rest for 15-20 minutes and cool the injury site again.
• If the wound is serious, it should be treated with hydrogen peroxide to avoid infection.

Following these simple tips will help reduce swelling and prevent complications. If the pain is so severe that the victim cannot bear it, take painkillers and consult a doctor immediately. In the first 5-7 days after injury, you should refrain from hot compresses, warm baths and the use of warming ointments.

"Stuck heel"

In an adult, the symptom of a broken foot may appear as a “stuck heel”: it is difficult for a person to tear the leg off independently from a lying position. The crunching of fragments may even be felt when palpated. Also, this condition is observed in the absence of a process of pinching of the muscles located between the fragments.

If a patient has a closed foot fracture, doctors may note pathological mobility of the foot outside the joint. It is extremely undesirable to independently check the possibility of mobility of the victim’s foot, since this can further damage the blood vessels and nerve endings, as well as displace fragments.

How to treat a foot bruise?

There is no need to treat minor foot bruises as most cases go away on their own within a few days. However, if the injuries are more serious, you may not need medical attention. A severe foot bruise must be treated, otherwise there is a risk of complications that will remain unchanged throughout life.

In some cases, it is necessary to urgently go to the hospital after an injury, regardless of its severity. Risk groups include:

• children,
• aged people,
• people with chronic diseases.

Bruises are quite common in children. What should you do if you see a bruise on your foot and suspect it is a bruise? It is extremely important to take your child to the hospital immediately for a medical examination. The trauma surgeon will carefully examine the foot and, upon palpation, apply a bandage to the injured limb.

If no complications are detected, the doctor will recommend treating the bruised leg at home. For this purpose, various drugs or traditional medicine recipes are prescribed. Most often, ointments with a cooling and analgesic effect are prescribed to treat a child’s bruised foot. It is prohibited to use drugs with warming properties.

Medicines

Medicines are the most effective treatment for bruised feet. Today the pharmaceutical market is so diverse that you can find a cure for any ailment. You can choose either a new drug or an old one, tested by your grandparents.

Do not prescribe home treatment if you have a complex injury. The doctor will select a list of medications depending on the severity and characteristics of the injury.

If you have a mild foot bruise, you can treat your foot with a gel, cream, ointment, or other medication yourself. The most popular drugs that can easily be found in pharmacies are:

• "Lediaga Forte"
• Vishnevsky ointment,
• heparin ointment,
• "Traumel,
• Balm “Savior”.

Our ancestors also actively used Vishnevsky ointment and heparin ointment to treat leg bruises. These are quite effective and inexpensive means that quickly heal wounds. Their only drawback is the unpleasant smell. Modern pharmacies offer good drugs with a more pleasant smell.

Traumeel - ointment for bruises

In addition to products for external use, tablets are also prescribed. This is important if the patient is experiencing severe pain. The most commonly prescribed drugs are Ketanov, Analgin and newer painkillers.

The wound at the site of injury should be regularly washed with running cool water and treated with hydrogen peroxide or iodine.

Foot bruise: folk remedies

We already know how to treat foot bruises using modern pharmaceuticals. But this is not the only way out. Traditional medicine recipes do an excellent job of healing even the most severe wounds. However, this does not mean that you cannot contact a specialist. First aid and examination by a trauma surgeon are mandatory.

Folk remedies are aimed at getting rid of the symptoms of a bruise, including swelling:

• Onion wrap. Finely chop the onion or grind it into a paste and put it in cheesecloth. This compress should be applied to the bruise at night.
• Aloe juice with added sugar will get rid of bruises in a short time. After the product has infused (at least 10 hours), it can be applied to the bruise three times a day.
• A great way to get rid of a bruise is to make balms from linden or celery.
• An old recipe that comes from childhood is pulp from the leaves or plantain.

These are the simplest ways to combat the symptoms of a bruise. Raw potatoes, apple cider vinegar, mother and stepmother, tincture of calendula and wormwood are also used for this purpose.

Features of treatment

If a person knows what to do if they bruise their foot, and their injury is minor, they can treat it themselves at home. But if the injury is complex and, especially if it was suffered by a child, an elderly person or a patient suffering from a serious chronic disease, then self-medication is strictly prohibited. At the clinic, the patient must undergo all necessary examination procedures.

First, an experienced surgeon conducts a visual examination and determines the severity of the injury by palpation. The patient is necessarily sent for an x-ray, and based on the results of the image, doctors make a diagnosis and prescribe treatment. Very often, in a hospital, patients are offered magnetic therapy or electrophoresis procedures using medicinal solutions.

It is important that the damaged foot is firmly fixed during treatment. To do this, you can use an elastic bandage, the use of which allows you to fix the foot in a certain position, moreover, it does not compress or squeeze the leg. To ensure that the limb is constantly elevated, a pillow or cushion should be placed under it. If you exclude physical activity and provide complete rest to the foot, you can get rid of the consequences of the bruise within 10 days.

Causes

Both adults and children can hurt their feet. You can get such an injury while walking or while playing non-traumatic sports.

The most common causes of a foot injury include: