wound
Meaning of wound: Skin closes over an injury within days, but the repaired area keeps rebuilding for months and never regains its original strength.
Definition of wound
A wound is a break in the continuity of the skin or the tissue beneath it, produced by physical injury, a surgical cut, or a slower process such as pressure or poor blood supply. Wounds divide into closed wounds, where the surface stays intact although tissue underneath is damaged, and open wounds, where the skin itself is breached.
How does a wound heal?
Repair runs in four overlapping stages rather than one after another. Bleeding stops first as vessels narrow and a clot forms. An inflammatory stage follows, in which white cells clear bacteria and dead tissue, and the area looks red, warm and swollen for the first few days. New tissue is then built: fresh capillaries grow in, collagen is laid down, the edges are drawn together, and the surface is resurfaced by cells migrating in from the margins. Remodeling is the last and longest stage, running for months after the surface has closed, as disorganized collagen is replaced by fibers aligned along the lines of stress. Even at its best the repaired area recovers most but not all of the strength of uninjured skin, which is why an old scar remains a weak point.
What kinds of wounds are there?
| Type | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| Incision | A clean, straight cut from a blade or a surgical incision |
| Laceration | A torn, ragged break, often with bruised edges |
| Abrasion | Surface scraped away, leaving raw skin |
| Puncture | A small opening with a deep track underneath |
| Contusion | A closed wound, with bleeding into tissue under intact skin |
When does it stop being just a wound?
Every open wound carries bacteria on its surface, which is not the same as being infected. Infection means organisms have multiplied inside the tissue and provoked a response, and it usually declares itself through redness, swelling, warmth, pain or drainage that increases after the first few days instead of settling. A wound that fails to close within an expected timescale is described as chronic, and that pattern points to a reason healing has stalled rather than to the original injury: sustained pressure on one area, poor arterial supply, venous congestion in the leg, diabetes with reduced sensation, or previous radiation to that site. Size, location, tension across the edges, and a person's circulation and nutrition all shape how quickly and how completely the process finishes.
Used in a sentence
The surgical wound was inspected daily for signs of infection during the hospital stay.
Good to know
A wound that is healing normally is distinguished from one that has become infected, since increasing redness, swelling, warmth, or drainage after the first few days suggests infection rather than expected healing.