Child With Pain In The Head And Heavy Bleeding After Being Hit On The Wall. No Loss Of Unconsciousness. Should Be Worried?

Posted on Sat, 14 Jul 2012

Question: My son was running and ran into the side of a XXXXXXX wall. There was tons o. Blood. He has a gash on his eyebrow along with bruising. I only got ice on it for a few minutes bc he's a very stubborn 4 yr old. I applied pressure- but it's been an hour and he is still dribbling blood out of the wound. He has been acting normal since the injury- no loss of consciousness - eyes look normal he says his head hurts- should I take him ti the er?

Answered by Dr. Dr.Raju.A.T (1 hour later)

Hi,

Thanks for your query.

Based on the description, I suspect the injury to be in the scalp rather than any intra-cranial.

Scalp veins have more amount of fibrous tissue surrounding them which pull the cut ends of the veins and cause continuous bleed unlike in any other tissues.Hence applying pressure on the wound is a prime requirement.

Also a bleed for more than a hour cannot be considered normal.Such scalp injuries if not treated appropriately can lead to secondary bleed any time in near future.Hence I do recommend you to visit the ER where the wound can be treated with a pressure bandage.

Do observe for any signs of intra-cranial bleed like lack of consciousness , altered sensorium or vomiting.

Wish you good health.

Regards,

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar