Whenever a wound involves damage<\/span> to the skin<\/strong><\/span> and underlying tissue<\/strong><\/span>, blood vessels<\/strong><\/span> will be ruptured<\/strong><\/span>, resulting in blood spurting<\/strong><\/span>, flowing<\/strong><\/span> or oozing<\/strong><\/span> out of the wound. Depending on the type of blood vessel involved, this can be venous<\/span>, arterial<\/span> or capillary bleeding<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n In the case of an abrasive injury<\/strong><\/span>, the bleeding will be capillary<\/span>. <\/span>A minimum amount of blood will lie on the wound and the body will quickly stop the bleeding itself within a very short space of time.<\/span><\/p>\n In the case of arterial bleeding<\/strong><\/span>, blood sprays out of the wound in spurts<\/span>. The high pressure<\/strong><\/span> in the artery causes the blood to spray and the beating heart<\/strong><\/span> is responsible for the spurts. The heart\u2019s pumping action is reflected in the nature of the bleeding. Bleeding from an artery can result in significant blood loss<\/span> within a short space of time. On the other hand, if the artery has been completely severed, there will only be a little bleeding due to reactions within the arterial tissue. <\/span><\/p>\n Since the blood pressure in veins drops to almost 0 mmHg<\/strong><\/span> due to the increase in volume when blood leaves the capillary network, the blood will flow weakly<\/span> out of the damaged vein with no spurting<\/span>. The only exception is venous bleeding in varicose veins<\/strong><\/span>. The accumulation of a large volume<\/span> of blood in the highly dilated blood vessel<\/span> causes the pressure in the vein to rise. When the vein is damaged, the pressure will cause the vein to burst<\/span> and, as with arterial bleeding, blood will spurt out of the vein until normal venous pressure is achieved. Afterwards, the bleeding takes on the characteristics of venous bleeding, namely weak<\/strong><\/span> and oozing<\/strong><\/span>, without spurts<\/span>. The severity of venous bleeding and the extent of blood loss depend on the diameter of the vessel<\/span> involved and the extent of vascular damage<\/span>. Venous bleeding is accompanied by a risk of air embolism<\/strong><\/span>. Suction caused by the heart and the flow of blood back to the heart can result in air instead of blood being sucked into the vein near the damaged area.<\/span><\/p>\n Although blood from a wound usually comes from various different types of blood vessels, it is easy to prioritise when administering first aid. For example, venous<\/strong><\/span> or arterial bleeding<\/strong><\/span> will always be accompanied by capillary bleeding<\/strong><\/span>. Arterial bleeding will be greater<\/span> than venous bleeding, due to the higher pressure<\/span> in arteries. It is of life-saving importance to maintain the volume of circulating blood by controlling bleeding in the case of a severe haemorrhagic wound<\/strong><\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n Following damage to blood vessels, the body will undertake immediate measures of its own:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whenever a wound involves damage to the skin and underlying tissue, blood vessels will be ruptured, resulting in blood spurting, flowing or oozing out of the wound. Depending on the type of blood vessel involved, this can be venous, arterial or capillary bleeding. In the case of an abrasive injury, the bleeding will be capillary. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[149],"class_list":["post-827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-controlling-bleeding-and-wound-care","tag-bandages-bandaging-techniques"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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