What is cyanosis?

Also known as: blue lips, mouth, skin, and nail beds, skin discoloration.

A bluish tinge of the lips, tongue, nail beds or skin is called cyanosis. There are 2 types: Central cyanosis and Acrocyanosis.

• Central cyanosis occurs because of a lack of oxygen in the red cells of blood and is never normal.
• Acrocyanosis is usually normal in babies and occurs when the extremities (hands and feet are cold), appear blue but not the lips, or tongue which normally appear pink in color.

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Reviewed by: Jack Wolfsdorf, MD, FAAP

This page was last updated on: 1/29/2019 3:21:13 PM