wound
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What is a wound in medicine?
In medicine, a wound refers to any break in the continuity of bodily tissue caused by violence, encompassing any action of an external agent, including surgery.
The most important distinction is between open and closed wounds. Open wounds involve a break in the protective body surface, such as the skin or mucous membranes, allowing foreign material to enter the tissues. Closed wounds, on the other hand, do not expose the damaged tissues to the exterior, enabling the repair process to occur without interference from contamination.
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What are the main types of wounds?
Wounds are breaks in bodily tissue caused by violence, including surgery. The most important distinction is between open and closed wounds. Open wounds involve a break in the skin or mucous membranes, allowing foreign material to enter the tissues. Closed wounds do not expose damaged tissues to the exterior, allowing repair without contamination.
Further divisions can be based on how the wound occurred. Examples include:
* Abrasions Damage to the epidermis caused by friction.
* Lacerations Tears in the skin that result in irregular wounds.
* Punctures Small holes made by a pointed instrument.
* Contusions Injuries where small blood vessels are broken, but the skin is not.
* Incisions Long, deep cuts.4 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How can wounds be caused?
A wound is a disruption in the structure of any bodily tissue caused by violence, which includes any action from an external source, such as surgery. Wounds can be open or closed. Open wounds involve a break in the skin or mucous membranes, allowing foreign material to enter the tissues. Closed wounds do not expose the damaged tissue.
Wounds can be caused by:
* Sharp objects, such as knives or needles
* Irregular objects, such as bomb fragments
* Crushing injuries
* Burns from heat, chemicals, radiation, or electricity
* Blunt trauma, such as impact from a baseball bat
* Penetrating trauma, such as gunshot wounds4 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What are the steps to basic wound care?
Basic wound care involves several key steps to promote healing and prevent infection. Initially, stop any bleeding using direct pressure with sterile gauze. Clean the wound thoroughly by irrigating it with a sterile saline solution to remove debris.
For closure, small wounds can heal via secondary intention (left open), or with adhesive tape. More severe lacerations may need sutures. Apply a sterile dressing to protect the wound from contamination. Change dressings regularly.
Monitor for signs of infection, such as increased pain, redness, swelling, or pus. Seek medical attention if complications arise.
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What are the signs that a wound might be infected?
Signs that a wound might be infected include pus, a thick, whitish-yellow fluid oozing from the wound, caused by an accumulation of white blood cells, bacteria, and dead skin cells. Other signs of infection include spreading skin redness, swelling, tenderness, and fever.
It is important to seek immediate medical attention if these signs are present. If left untreated, severe cases of cellulitis can result in amputation. Cellulitis can also lead to other complications, such as bone or joint infection, swelling of the veins, or toxic shock syndrome.
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How do doctors treat severe or complicated wounds?
Doctors treat severe or complicated wounds depending on the type, depth, and amount of body surface affected. For severe burns, the priority is ensuring the airway remains open, often with a tube through the nose or mouth into the trachea to administer oxygen and use a mechanical ventilator.
To treat burn shock, intravenous lines administer fluid, and a catheter monitors urine output. Cleansing the wound with mild soap solutions and dressing it follows. Antibiotics can prevent infection. Pain management is also key, often requiring intravenous morphine or even general anesthesia during dressing changes.
For wound closure, doctors may opt for primary intention (closing the wound with sutures), secondary intention (allowing the wound to close naturally), or third intention (leaving the wound open for a few days before closing). In some instances, skin grafts or flaps are necessary.
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wound, a break in the continuity of any bodily tissue due to violence, where violence is understood to encompass any action of external agency, including, for example, surgery. Within this general definition many subdivisions are possible, taking into account and grouping together the various forms of violence or tissue damage.
The most important distinction is between open and closed wounds. Open wounds are those in which the protective body surface (the skin or mucous membranes) has been broken, permitting the entry of foreign material into the tissues. In closed wounds, by contrast, the damaged tissues are not exposed to the exterior, and the process of repair can take place without the interference that contamination brings, in greater or lesser degree. Further divisions may be made on the basis of the mode of production of the wound.
Closed wounds
The degree of injury sustained from a direct blow depends upon the force of the blow and its direction. Obviously the degree of damage increases with increasing force. The effects of direction are equally important, although not so readily appreciated. For example, a hammerblow to the side of the head may severely bruise the scalp or, delivered with equal force but directed in a slightly different way, may cause extensive damage to the base of the skull. Anatomic and physiologic factors may also affect the degree of injury. Thus, a fall on an outstretched hand may have extremely different effects on a child, a young adult, and an elderly person.
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A relatively slight blow may damage the skin and underlying soft tissues, as shown by bruising, or contusion, which results from the infiltration of blood into the tissues from ruptured small vessels and by swelling caused by the passage of fluid through the walls of damaged capillaries. As a rule, the hemorrhage ceases abruptly, the blood and fluid are absorbed within a few days, and the part is restored to normal. When larger vessels are injured, much more blood escapes, and it collects in the tissues and forms a mass called a hematoma.
A direct, forceful blow may damage any of the underlying tissues; blood vessels, nerves, muscles, bones, joints, or the internal organs may be affected. Damage to the deeper tissues may result from the direct impact of the blow upon a tissue, as in the fracturing of a skull by a hammer or, more commonly, from the transmission of the force of impact through the body to a relatively weak point. Thus, a fall on an outstretched hand may injure the flesh and bones of the hand itself, but a common result is a break at some other site in the arm through which the force is transmitted—at the scaphoid bone in the wrist, at the radius in the forearm just above the wrist, at the elbow, or at the shoulder—the breaking point being determined by the direction of force and the anatomy of the individual.
Other common forms of indirect injury result from twisting, as occurs when a person’s foot becomes caught and he or she twists upon it, suffering, if the force is great enough, a sprained or broken ankle or a broken leg or hip; from bending; or from deceleration, a form of injury frequently encountered in automobile and aircraft accidents, where one part of the body is fixed while another is relatively mobile, giving rise, in abrupt stops, to a displacement of the mobile parts, commonly called whiplash.