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A wound is any disruption of or damage to living tissue, such as skin, mucous membranes, or organs. [1] [2] Wounds can either be the sudden result of direct trauma (mechanical, thermal, chemical), or can develop slowly over time due to underlying disease processes such as diabetes mellitus, venous/arterial insufficiency, or immunologic disease. [3]
The type of wound (incision, laceration, puncture, etc.) has a major effect on the way a wound is managed, as does the area of the body affected and presence of any foreign objects in the wound. A serious wound or any complication may require a call to emergency medical services. Any wound requires being disinfected after it stops bleeding.
The wound is initially cleaned, debrided and observed, typically 4 or 5 days before closure. The wound is purposely left open. Examples: healing of wounds by use of tissue grafts. If the wound edges are not reapproximated immediately, delayed primary wound healing transpires. This type of healing may be desired in the case of contaminated wounds.
Chronic wounds may never heal or may take years to do so. These wounds can cause patients severe emotional and physical stress and create a significant financial burden on patients and the whole healthcare system. [7] Acute and chronic wounds are at opposite ends of a spectrum of wound-healing types that progress toward being healed at ...
Open fracture, wound > 1 cm but < 10 cm in length [14] without extensive soft-tissue damage, flaps, avulsions IIIA: Open fracture with adequate soft tissue coverage of a fractured bone despite extensive soft tissue laceration or flaps, or high-energy trauma (gunshot and farm injuries) regardless of the size of the wound [14] [15] IIIB
Penetrating trauma is an open wound injury that occurs when an object pierces the skin and enters a tissue of the body, creating a deep but relatively narrow entry wound.In contrast, a blunt or non-penetrating trauma may have some deep damage, but the overlying skin is not necessarily broken and the wound is still closed to the outside environment.
Some troops leave the battlefield injured. Others return from war with mental wounds. Yet many of the 2 million Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffer from a condition the Defense Department refuses to acknowledge: Moral injury.
The extent of the injury and the age of the injured person may contribute to the likelihood of complications. Infection of wounds is a common complication in traumatic injury, resulting in diagnoses such as pneumonia or sepsis. [63] Wound infection prevents the healing process from taking place and can cause further damage to the body.