Purple Skin

Purple skin may accompany other symptoms that vary depending on the underlying disease, disorder or condition. Symptoms that frequently affect the skin may also involve other body systems.

Purple skin may accompany other symptoms affecting the skin including:

• Dryness
• Easy bleeding or bruising
• Redness, warmth or swelling

Purple skin may accompany symptoms related to the lungs including:

• Coughing up blood (hemoptysis)
• Coughing up clear, yellow, light brown, or green mucus
• Difficulty breathing or rapid breathing
• Loose, wet cough that produces thick white or yellow phlegm
• Respiratory arrest
• Wheezing (whistling sound made with breathing)

Purple skin may accompany symptoms related to the heart including:

• Cardiac arrest
• Chest pain or pressure
• Irregular heartbeat
• Rapid heart rate (tachycardia)
• Slow heart rate (bradycardia)
• Squatting posture in children
  

Purple skin may accompany symptoms related to other systems including:

• Fainting or change in level of consciousness or lethargy
• Fever and chills
• Severe fatigue

In some cases, purple skin may be a symptom of a life-threatening condition that should be immediately evaluated in an emergency setting. Seek immediate medical care  (call 911) if you, or someone you are with, have any of these life-threatening symptoms including:

• Bluish coloration of the lips or fingernails or skin
• Chest pain or pressure
• Difficulty breathing or rapid breathing
• Fainting or change in level of consciousness or lethargy
• Rapid heart rate (tachycardia)
• Wheezing (whistling sound made with breathing)

Common causes of purple skin include bleeding, bruising, and broken blood vessels under the skin. A severe lack of oxygen in the blood (cyanosis) results in purple skin.

Injuries may be a cause of bleeding and purple skin. Congenital heart disease, heart failure, cardiogenic shock, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis) may be accompanied by purple skin as the result of a lack of oxygen in the blood. Purple skin can also result from drug overdoses from sedatives or narcotics, such as morphine.

Purple skin may be caused by injuries to the skin including:

• Ecchymosis (a large area of the skin that is bruised)

• Petechiae (broken blood vessels characterized by small red dots on the skin)

• Purpura (collection of blood under the skin due to internal bleeding, and not trauma)

Purple skin may be caused by pulmonary disorders including:

• Asthma attack that results in airway constriction

• Bronchiolitis (viral infection of the bronchioles)

• Choking on a foreign object

• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis)

• Croup (viral illness)

• Epiglottitis (life-threatening inflammation and swelling of the epiglottis, a tissue flap between the tongue and windpipe)

• Lung cancer

• Obstructive sleep apnea

• Pneumonia

• Pneumothorax (collapsed lung)

• Pulmonary embolism associated with deep vein thrombosis (blood clot in the leg that can break loose from the leg and cause a pulmonary embolism in the lung, a heart attack, or stroke)

Purple skin may be caused by heart conditions including:

• Cardiogenic shock (shock caused by heart damage and ineffective heart function)

• Cardiomyopathy (weakened or abnormal heart muscle and function)

• Congestive heart failure (deterioration of the heart’s ability to pump blood)

• Cyanotic heart disease (congenital heart defect characterized by cyanosis)

• Severe valvular heart disease

Purple skin may have other causes including:

• Being at high altitude (lower levels of oxygen reduce oxygen in blood)

• Cancer treatment (radiation therapy and chemotherapy cause ecchymosis)

• Cold air or water exposure (decreased temperature reduces blood flow to skin)

• Henoch-Schonlein purpura (type of vasculitis or blood vessel inflammation)

• Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (low levels of platelets)

• Medications

• Methemoglobinemia

• Near drowning or drowning (breathing stops, lungs may fill with water, and cyanosis develops)

• Overdose (especially medications, such as sedatives and narcotics)

• Prolonged seizures (if breathing stops for a significant period of time, cyanosis will develop)

• Sickle cell disease

In some cases, purple skin may be a symptom of a serious or life-threatening condition that should be immediately evaluated in an emergency setting. These include:

• Cardiogenic shock (shock caused by heart damage and ineffective heart function)

• Near drowning or drowning (breathing stops, lungs may fill with water, and cyanosis develops)

• Pulmonary embolism associated with deep vein thrombosis (blood clot in the leg that can break loose from the leg and cause a pulmonary embolism in the lung, a heart attack, or stroke)

• Sepsis (life-threatening bacterial blood infection)

To diagnose your condition, your doctor or licensed health care practitioner will ask you several questions related to your purple skin including:

• When did you first notice purple skin?

• Have you recently been ill?

• Is your skin always purple?

• Do you have any other symptoms?

• What medications are you taking?

Because purple skin can be due to serious diseases, failure to seek treatment can result in serious complications and permanent damage. Once the underlying cause is diagnosed, it is important for you to follow the treatment plan that you and your health care professional design specifically for you to reduce the risk of potential complications including:

• Adverse effects of treatment

• Brain damage

• Heart failure

• Respiratory failure and respiratory arrest

• Spread of infection

• Spread of cancer