fullcortex.net

( 1996 )

I am a 65-year-old white female and I often have large, red-blue bruises on my arms and hands. They are very dark and disfiguring. They result from very slight injury or occasionally from scratching. I believe they are called purpura. Do they signify anything in particular and what causes them?

Your description of bleeding under the skin on your arms and hands does sound like a form of purpura. It is commonly associated with aging and is caused by a decrease in thickness and resilience of the skin. Even without injury, small blood vessels in the skin can rupture, leading to bleeding that results in a discolored or bruised area. There is no effective treatment for this age-related condition.
There are other causes of purpura. They include deficiency in blood clotting factors due to disease or medications, inadequate numbers or function of platelets and the long term use of corticosteroid medications such as prednisone or cortisone.