Dorothy FarrarSpit blood
Vomiting blood or spitting up blood ( hematemesis ) can indicate a serious illness. Spitting up blood depends on the amount, the intervals and the color of the blood. Spitting up blood after tooth extraction is probably of a harmless nature – especially when it comes to small amounts of blood. If necessary, you should also have the blood spit clarified here.
What is spitting up blood (hematemesis)?
Spitting up blood, or hematemesis, is vomiting large amounts of bloody sputum or stomach contents. But it can also be spitting up after a mouth injury, such as biting your tongue.
If people suddenly spit blood without warning, this usually indicates a serious problem, the cause of which must be clarified as soon as possible. You can spit blood and suffer internal injuries from poison ingestion, a ruptured vein, or after an accident.
Causes
There are many reasons why you have to spit blood. They range from tuberculosis to esophageal cancer and duodenal ulcers to an esophageal rupture. The causes of any form of blood spitting must be clarified as soon as possible. Spitting up blood can indicate serious illnesses or the serious consequences of an accident.Stomach cancer or ruptured esophageal varices can lead to blood spitting. Occasionally you can also spit up blood because of acute gastritis or stomach ulcers. The ingestion of certain poisons can lead to blood spitting, as can Mallory-Weiss syndrome, hemophilia or malaria .
Syphilis can spit up blood, as can diverticulitis . What is interesting is what accompanying symptoms there were before or while someone had to spit blood. They can provide information about the type of illness, problem or poisoning.
Spitting up blood as a result of an accident is also a serious symptom that should give rise to further investigations. You can also spit blood because you have strained the veins in your throat due to constant vomiting as a result of alcoholism or bulimia.
Diseases
When to the doctor?
If blood spitting occurs, in most cases it makes sense to consult a doctor. However, there are also exceptions. For example, if the gums bleed easily, it is not necessary to see a doctor. However, if no explanation can be found for the spitting up of blood, it is important to have the symptoms clarified by a doctor.
Only the doctor can determine where the blood came from and whether there is an infection or even an internal source of bleeding. With such a symptom, it is better to see a doctor as a precaution than to wait and see. Spitting up blood can have serious causes that, if left untreated, can result in serious damage.
For this reason, a doctor should always be consulted if the blood does not obviously result from a minor injury in the mouth. This can already be seen from the amount of blood – if there is only very little blood, this is probably a minor injury. In general, spitting up blood should be taken seriously and a doctor should be consulted immediately.
Diagnosis and course
The diagnosis and course of hematemesis depend heavily on the cause. The diagnosis to be made looks for the focus or injury causing hematemesis.
Since hematemesis can result in relatively high blood loss, internal bleeding can go unnoticed, or serious illnesses can be the cause, there is always an emergency situation. Immediate medical help and a quick diagnosis are therefore important in any case.
The clarification of the most important vital parameters (pulse, blood pressure) and other symptoms or questions about the color of the leaked blood serve to find the cause more quickly.
Existing underlying diseases (stomach ulcers, duodenal ulcer) often provide information about the possible causes.
Gastroscopy or colonoscopy , MRT scans , X-ray examinations or immediate surgical interventions may be necessary. If someone has to spit up blood, it can be a life-threatening situation.
In some cases, X-rays, ultrasound scans or a blood sample first clarify the reason for the blood vomiting.
The course and the corresponding therapy of hematemesis depends on the underlying disease. For example, the course of the disease and treatment of poisoning is different than if cancer, an intestinal problem, a nosebleed with vomiting blood that was swallowed or a burst artery in the esophagus were the cause.
Complications
Since spitting up blood can be an indication of a life-threatening condition, you should act immediately if you experience this symptom and consult a doctor. Because of this threat, those affected usually become afraid. Spitting up blood can cause shock or paralysis . Sometimes it is difficult for the person concerned to make a rational decision. He can react hysterically, feel very restless and tend to overreact. Many people immediately think of cancer when they spit up blood. This must be treated as quickly as possible and is associated with further complications, such as surgery or chemotherapy.
In addition, the spitting up of blood can be associated with impairments of the cardiovascular system. Dizziness, discomfort or an unsteady gait are possible symptoms. In harmless cases, blood spitting is due to broken blood vessels. These may have burst in the nose or in the gastrointestinal area. In most cases, the bleeding will stop on its own within a few hours or days. Another complication of blood spitting is aspiration. Vomit can get into the nose and throat. There is a reflexive gagging that pushes the inhaled substances back into the mouth. If this is not completely successful, breathing problems arise and there is a risk of suffocation. In addition, the risk of pneumonia increases .
Treatment and therapy
Treatment for hematemesis depends on the cause found. Emergency surgery is often unavoidable when spitting up blood. Without hemostasis, spitting up blood can lead to fatal blood loss. Sometimes the cause can already be eliminated during a gastroscopy or colonoscopy.
If a ruptured varicose vein is sclerosed, you no longer have to spit blood. If the spitting blood comes from a ruptured stomach ulcer, you have to operate immediately. In the case of tuberculosis, which has recently become more frequent again, the possible risk of infection must be taken into account. The same applies to syphilis. An important therapy for blood spitting is a change in lifestyle habits that make you ill. For example, spitting up blood can be due to alcoholism or poor dietary habits. The loss of blood and electrolytes must be quickly compensated for by infusions.
In the case of recognized underlying diseases such as stomach ulcers, mucosal damage or cancer, drug treatment is also possible. When spitting blood, one can distinguish between long-term therapies and emergency measures.
Outlook and prognosis
If you spit blood once, the prognosis is good. Strenuous physical activity, such as lifting or holding heavy objects, causes tears in the walls of blood vessels . That leads to the complaints. Intensive physical exercise often has a comparable effect. Since the blood vessels heal in a few hours or days, the blood spitting will heal spontaneously once activities are reduced.
If blood is spitting up due to a carcinoma, the course of the disease depends on the cancer diagnosis and the stage of the disease. The earlier a tumor is detected, the better the chances of recovery. In the best case, the diseased tissue is completely removed and blood spitting disappears.
Eating disorders are often mechanically induced to vomit ingested food . This process is extremely stressful for the organism. The more regularly the vomiting occurs, the more attacked are the mucous membranes and organs. Spitting up blood is a warning sign that in most cases only subsides when successful therapy against the eating disorder is initiated. If the blood spitting occurs as a symptom of a cold, it subsides as soon as the heart attack has healed. As a rule, the process takes a few days or weeks until complete healing is achieved.
Prevention
Preventing blood spitting can include living a healthy lifestyle, not drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, and avoiding foods that irritate the lining of the digestive tract.Some causes of blood spitting are hereditary, while others are diet-related. Chronic alcoholism in particular eventually leads to spitting up blood and should therefore be treated. Traveling abroad can become a source of blood spitting when contracting malaria or syphilis through frequent unprotected sex.
Appropriate countermeasures must be observed. Accidents and the accidental ingestion of poison, after which one has to spit blood, cannot always be avoided. Children in particular should be better protected by appropriate safety measures. Still, there’s a lot you can do to never have to spit up blood.
Hello and welcome to my Health Guide & Encyclopedia! My name is Dorothy Farrar, and I'm the founder and main author of this platform.
My passion for health and wellness started at a young age when I became interested in the connection between the food we eat and the way we feel. This fascination led me to study nutrition and dietetics in college, where I learned about the importance of a balanced diet and the impact of various nutrients on the body.