Permanent Bruise from EKG/ECG

[curiouspup]

A close friend of mine had a EKG done when he was in his mid-teens, after the test was done he discovered that there was a bruise where one of the sticky pads had been placed on his chest. This bruise has never gone away/ he has had it for roughly 30 years now. I am curious as to what caused this, and why? (I'm currently in a medical program...and the professor doesn't know either).

Any help answering this would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

-Cp

[CHTIGGER02]

I have been wearing these for 2 weeks and now where I don't have one but same area has a big hard red bump under my skin. Is this caused by these patches?

[LoriF5660]

I had to wear a holter monitor for 30 days and I took have permanent marks where the adhesives were and they have faded slightly, but the marks are still there.

[Henderrm]

I also a lesion from a heart rate monitor from when I had surgery three months ago. The redness went away, bit now there is a hugh Black scab. Will it go away?

[Veronicathe8th]

I'm not a health practitioner but hopefully I can help.
I was recently placed on a 30 day Holter monitor. I began to have a strange sensation like something was poking me internally, underneath two of the four electrodes. When it was time to change the electrodes, I noticed some good bruising on my skin underneath the two electrodes where I'd been experiencing the strange sensations, while the skin beneath the other two electrodes was fine.
I believe that I was being shocked by those two electrodes. The company is sending me a new device because apparently they can shock you.

[Sassy501]

I had the same reaction to the stress test pads.  Scared the bees out of me!!  Its been two weeks and the dark patches seem to be getting darker.  I really don't know what to do about them.  Are yours fading?

[Lmt19682]

I also still have 2 marks above my breast where the electrodes were placed to monitor my heart rate during a 45 minute procedure. It has been about 9 days since the procedure and the marks remain. Hoping the marks are not permanent.

[KJLA]

I had an ECG Stress test performed on me at a direct order from my employer.  My agency is implementing a fitness program and the ECG test was mandatory for all and the doctor was chosen by my employer, not me. The administrator of the test sand papered me for several seconds at each pad site.  I was left with 6 blister burns.  Three directly under my left breast the size of a nickel.  Three months later I have nasty brown circles on my chest from the pads.  At 41 years old, I went into the test as a healthy, 40 year old woman.  I came out burnt and permanently scarred.  I will never endure this stupidity again and highly recommend research the necessity of the test of told to do one.  

[Dina619619]

I had a stress test 1week ago today and I have 5 brown circles where the patches were place.. Tomorrow I will see the heart doc and will ask him when it will go or fade away.. I'm only 55 and certainly don't want theses circles as a permanent fixture on my tummy.. No way  ***** gonna hit the fan if the circles don't go away soon...

[achillea]

I am a patient rather than a practitioner, but I have a number of allergies, as well as fragile, dermatogrqphic skin.  After a number of long-lived, brownish reactions to perhaps the adhesive on the electrodes, I have learned to clean these spots thoroughly but gently with alcohol to minimize the reaction.

Bruises as a different affair, but when you are dealing with very fragile skin, elderly or otherwise, and you cause bleeding (very, very easy to do with the elderly), the hemoglobin released through the torn blood vessels by a quick 'rip'---although usually of no consequence in normal people--can indeed produce a permanent tattoo.

[bill293]

my wife had a stress test yesterday and has black bruise spots at the site where each electrode was removed--took pictures today--

[grendslori]

As a tech and having my daugher having lived for many years as a heart patient as well as a heart transplant patient (13 years now) I have never heard of this happening. My daughter is highly allergic to the pads and needs a certain type placed, and while she has broken out in some nasty rashes in the past, she has never had a long term bruise. Ironically she also has a coagulopathy so you look at her and she bruises. Being that this is an elderly lady, bruising is a way of life. I do not know of ANY elderly lady who does not bruise easily. I would question if this patient had an allergic reaction to the pad or jell rather than a full blown bruise as 30 minutes would be long enough to cause a reaction. Did you see anything when you took the pads off?

[amanda558]

for privacy purposes i will not enclose any names here. i have recently been removed from my clinical practice, due to having caused 2 large bruise skin patches on an old female patient by fast removal of ECG electrode patches. this is very serious allegation against me who has been a cardiology practioner for over 18 years. has any medical practioner has come across such accusation? the organisation ( work ) has produced blurred pictures of these injuries take by patient, which obviously can not determined as to how these bruises were caused. further more the dark red skin patches could be due to an allergic reaction caused by conductive gel at the back of ECG electrode patches, as i have been put through absolute hell by an investigatory panel i would very much appreciate if any other medical professional has any experiences of this kind and can give me some information and advice. thank you all in advance.
p.s. the ECG electrodes i use are on patient skin for approx. 30 minutes, and not long-term heart monitoring etc.

[hopeyb1017]

My husband has his done on November 11, 2019, and today is December  7 2019 .he has dark circles from the pads from the stress  test and they were not removed fast. The marks he was told would go away and it's now almost 1 month and they haven't budge.  Please contact someone about that because I just think he had a reaction and it discolored his skin. He says it's never hurt .

[4info]

I have a permanent scar/blotch where a chest lead was from wearing a monitor for a month last year. I have very sensitive skin and due to that reason used the special pads for sensitive skin and moved it a bit each time I changed it, but still ended up with the scar/blotch.

[Wisconsin2007]

Wow - I didn't think a permanent mark would be possible.  I've been moving mine around each time I place new ones, and so far, other than a little irritation and a bit of adhesive at the perimeter of where the sticky was, I'm not having any issues so far.

[nervouslady]

Are you talking about a holtor monitor/event monitor that was worn for awhile?  I know someone who wore one for a month, and where one of the stickies was she has a darkened scar.   I had irritation from  mine for a week or so after I took my month-long event monitor off permanently but mine went away.  I made sure I moved them around a bit each time I replaced the stickies so that my skin wouldn't get too irritated.  I don't think this other person did that and it left a permanent mark.

[Jerry_NJ]

You said: "was a bruise where one of the sticky pads " to which I say it was not a bruise, what it was I don't know.  I think the fact that it appeared where the EKG pad was stuck is a coincidence.

[TAC87]

I currently have the same and I have all marks where the patches were placed.

[Brooke_38]

Hello...

I have never seen or heard of this either...I have done thousands of EKG's on my patients and thankfully never left them black and blue.

Hope you find your answer. When and if you do, please let us know what the underlying cause was! We'll be curious:)