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Concept
Wound
Summary
A wound is a rapid onset of injury that involves lacerated or punctured skin (an open wound), or a contusion (a closed wound) from blunt force trauma or compression. In pathology, a wound is an acute injury that damages the epidermis of the skin. To heal a wound, the body undertakes a series of actions collectively known as the wound healing process.
According to the level of contamination, a wound can be classified as:
Clean wound – made under sterile conditions where there are no organisms present, and the skin is likely to heal without complications.
Contaminated wound – usually resulting from accidental injury; there are pathogenic organisms and foreign bodies in the wound.
Infected wound – the wound has pathogenic organisms present and multiplying, exhibiting clinical signs of infection (yellow appearance, soreness, redness, oozing pus).
Colonized wound – a chronic situation, containing pathogenic organisms, difficult to heal (e.g. bedsore).
Open wounds can be classified according to the object that caused the wound:
Incisions or incised wounds – caused by a clean, sharp-edged object such as a knife, razor, or glass splinter.
– irregular tear-like wounds caused by some blunt trauma. Lacerations and incisions may appear linear (regular) or stellate (irregular). The term laceration is commonly misused in reference to incisions.
Abrasions (grazes) – superficial wounds in which the topmost layer of the skin (the epidermis) is scraped off. Abrasions are often caused by a sliding fall onto a rough surface such as asphalt, tree bark or concrete.
Avulsions – injuries in which a body structure is forcibly detached from its normal point of insertion; a type of amputation where the extremity is pulled off rather than cut off. When used in reference to skin avulsions, the term 'degloving' is also sometimes used as a synonym.
Puncture wounds – caused by an object puncturing the skin, such as a splinter, nail or needle.
Penetration wounds – caused by an object such as a knife entering and coming out from the skin.
Official source
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