All the tissues in our body can bruise. We’ve all had one. Sometimes heavy compression on joints can damage the surfaces of bones causing bleeding inside the bone surface. In simple terms, this is a bone bruise where the bone is injured but not fractured.
I mostly see this in the bones of the foot or knee damaged by clients during sport or from jumping onto hard surfaces, especially with a straight knee.
Bone bruises are usually extremely painful initially and most people have had an x-ray by the time they get to see me because a fracture has been suspected.
Unfortunately they can be very slow to resolve, mostly because they are on the surfaces that we weight bear on. To explain:
Imagine you get a heavy knock on the bone of your shin. It really hurts but after a few days you don’t notice it. But then imagine every time you took a step someone gave you a good poke right on the spot of the knock – it would stay sore, wouldn’t it?
That is what happens with bone bruises, they keep getting irritated because you’re walking on them.
The good news is they almost always resolve completely, even if slowly.
The best treatment, as always, is to respect pain and to maintain good joint range around where the injury is. That’s where a good physio (one with manual skills!) can be of value.
