These are flat, irregular, purple lesions which appear on the skin as one gets older. They normally occur on the back of the hands and the forearms. The skin tends to appear thin and wrinkly and almost look flimsy. They are not dangerous. It results in flat blotches which start out red and then turn purple, darken a bit and eventually fade away. It may also occur in the mucous membrane such as mouth and internal organs. At times, some drugs may also cause this skin disease as these drugs affect the blood platelets and results in Bateman’s purpura. It mostly occurs in the elderly population but it may periodically occur in young people. It affects both males and females equally and bateman’s purpura affects fair skinned individuals more as compared to other races.

Cause

It occurs on the sun damaged skin of people over the age of forty. The weakened state of blood vessel walls is a major cause of Batman’s purpura. Over a period of time, the sunlight causes damage to the skin and underlying blood vessels thereby making the walls fragile. Even a slight trauma can cause the blood vessel walls to break resulting in the leakage of blood in the surrounding skin. Aspirin, prednisone and alcohol may lead to Bateman’s purpura. Usage of aspirin and alcohol leads to thinning of blood which makes it easier for the blood to leak into the skin. The blood vessel walls become weak by the use of prednisone.

Symptoms

Purple blotches or bruises appear on the forearms, face, hands or neck. The macules are not related to pain or pruritus. The lesions generally last for one to three weeks. The macules are larger than three mm in diameter and they are generally present on the exterior surfaces of the forearms and on the dorsa of the hand. The lesions don’t extend onto the fingers. The lesions are present in the region of atrophic and inelastic photo damaged skin. It can be diagnosed through clinical examination and a laboratory investigation is only required if the diagnosis is not apparent.

Treatment

Cosmetics are used for masking the lesions. For dermatologic conditions like Bateman’s purpura, dermablend cosmetics are recommended. Covermark cosmetics can also cover this condition. Daily application of Vitamin K cream has shown improvement in this condition. In some cases of patients with sun damaged skin, daily application of alpha hydroxyacid lotion has shown an increase in the thickness of the skin.