Haemorrhage and bleeding

Question

Hi again!
My question is whether there is a difference between haemorrhage and bleeding (such as intensity of the event, e.g. haemorrhage is of minor intensity and bleeding is more volumous). If not, what would be the term for a minor bleeding?

Thanks!

Yoong Liat · Accepted Answer

Hi TinyPixie

The following should be a satisfactory reply to your questions.

A haemorrhage is serious bleeding inside a person's body.

Shortly after his admission into hospital he had a massive brain haemorrhage and died...

These drugs will not be used if hemorrhage is the cause of the stroke.

When you bleed, you lose blood from your body as a result of injury or illness.

His head had struck the sink and was bleeding...

She's going to bleed to death!

When a thick or sticky liquid oozes from something or when something oozes it, the liquid flows slowly and in small quantities.

He saw there was a big hole in the back of the man's head, blood was still oozing from it...

(Collins Cobuild Dictionary)

Clive · Answer

Hi,

I'm not a doctor, but I'm not so sure that 'haemorrhage' refers only to internal bleeding.

Have a look here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleeding

Note that the term 'haemorrhage' is not commonly used by non-medical people in everyday English. We speak of 'bleeding'.

Clive

Avangi · Answer

TinyPixie haemorrhage is of minor intensity and bleeding is more volumous). If not, what would be the term for a minor bleeding?

Just, "bleeding."

MrPernickety · Answer

Also, "to bleed" is a poetic verb compared to "to hemorrage".

For instance, we say "my heart bleeds for our troops in Iraq".

You certainly can't say "my heart haemorrages for them"

TinyPixie · Answer

My heart bleeds for the Iraqi... anyway, thanks! I am interested in the use of these two words in scientific texts.

Avangi · Answer

MrPernickety You certainly can't say "my heart haemorrages for them"

Aha! But you cansay, "The company is hemorraging capital."

BTW, I think "hemorraging" carries a sense of urgency, or imminent peril, which is not present in "bleeding," absent context - both in professional medical use and otherwise.

Avangi · Answer

TinyPixieMy heart bleeds for the Iraqi... anyway, thanks! I am interested in the use of these two words in scientific texts.

Likewise.
My doctor recently described an event in which I was hemorraging fresh blood from my stomach directly through my entire lower GI tract, as a "brisk bleed." Of course, this was not a scientific text.

Haemorrhage and bleeding

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