The Healing Process Before healing begins, the body gears up to protect against infection. For the first few days, a wound may be swollen, red, and painful. This inflammation is a sign of the body's immune system kicking in to protect the wound from infection.
Signs it's working: During this stage of healing, you may experience swelling, redness or pain while your wound heals. Your skin may also feel hot to the touch, and you may see a clear liquid around your wound. These are all signs that the inflammatory stage of wound healing is well underway.
Following tissue injury, persistent inflammation triggers a cascade of events that activates local pain receptors. This results in greater sensitivity of the surrounding skin and deeper structures in the wound base. The pain itself can be caused by tissue damage (nociceptive) or nerve damage (neuropathic).
Phase 2: Inflammation
This phase works to kill bacteria and remove debris with white and other blood cells. Inflammation ensures that your wound is clean and ready for new tissue to start growing. This phase can be the most painful of all.
New research also has suggested that pain may follow a circadian rhythm like the body's internal 24-clock that regulates our sleep-wake cycle. "This helps explain why some people regularly have higher pain levels at certain times, such as during the night," says Slawsby.
This arises from damaged tissue. Signals are picked up by sensory receptors in nerve endings in the damaged tissue. The nerves transmit the signals to the spinal cord, and then to the brain where the signals are interpreted as pain, which is often described as aching or throbbing.
According to Dr. Tom Potisk, a chiropractor near Milwaukee, the worst pain can come in the most miniscule slashes. Our skin's outer layer — roughly the top eighth inch — contains the most nerve endings. So deep gashes, Potisk said, may not trigger as many pain receptors as surface nicks.
Ligaments, nerves and wounds in areas with more movement heal the slowest. Injuries to these areas have a longer recovery time because of poor blood circulation and constant motion stress.
An example of a hard-to-heal wound is a pressure ulcer, otherwise known as bedsore. These form on bony prominences, usually in cases where people are immobilized for extended periods of time such as people who are injured or the elderly.
Fibrous connective tissues like ligaments and tendons as well as bones, cartilage, and nerves tend to take the longest to heal.
Tibial Compound Fracture: Something about the combination of the high-force fracture of one of our main weight-bearing bones and then having the sharp bone end tear through the muscle and skin is enough to leave even the strongest stomach quivering.
Wounds in the oral cavity heal faster and with less scarring than wounds in other parts of the body. One of the factors implicated in this phenomenon is the presence of saliva, which promotes the healing of oral wounds in several ways.
It's normal for pain to accompany a wound. You can take acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil) as directed on the package. Avoid aspirin products, since they can cause or prolong bleeding. Apply ice if you have bruising or swelling, and avoid picking at scabs.
Pain is an essential indicator of poor wound healing and should not be underestimated. Pain can occur from the disease process, surgery, trauma, infection or as a result of dressing changes and poor wound management practices.
Once the wound has formed a scab, there is no longer the need to cover it with a bandage as the scab now acts as a protective barrier. Keep the area clean, but be gentle so that you do not accidentally remove the scab.
Wounds generally heal in 4 to 6 weeks. Chronic wounds are those that fail to heal within this timeframe. Many factors can lead to impaired healing. The primary factors are hypoxia, bacterial colonization, ischemia, reperfusion injury, altered cellular response, and collagen synthesis defects.
When cared for properly, most wounds heal well, leaving only a small scar or none at all. With larger wounds, you are more likely to have a scar. Certain factors can prevent wounds from healing or slow the process, such as: Infection can make a wound larger and take longer to heal.
HYDROGEN PEROXIDE
According to wound specialist Dr. Walter Keller, “The hydrogen peroxide bubbling releases pure oxygen, which kills bacteria but also the healthy cells, slowing down wound healing.” Therefore, hydrogen peroxide is one thing you should never put on a wound.
A chronic wound is a wound that does not heal in an orderly set of stages and in a predictable amount of time or wounds that do not heal within three months are often considered chronic. Chronic wounds often remain in the inflammatory stage for too long2,3 and may never heal or may take years.
However, the entire wound care can be distilled into five basic principles. These five principles include wound assessment, wound cleansing, timely dressing change, selection of appropriate dressings, and antibiotic use.
While it is best to eat a variety of foods to ensure you get all the nutrients you need for wound healing, some good choices include: Foods high in minerals: oysters, spinach, nuts such as cashews, legumes such as peanuts, dairy products, black beans and lentils, bananas, and fish.
Location on the Body
If a laceration is located somewhere like the genitals, face, head, eyelids, or joints, these are more sensitive areas and can be more damaging if not treated properly.
For a start, all pain causes the central nervous system to release endorphins – proteins which act to block pain and work in a similar way to opiates such as morphine to induce feelings of euphoria.
In scar tissue, collagen proteins grow in a single direction rather than in a multidirectional pattern, as they do in healthy skin. This structure makes scar tissue less elastic , which may cause it to feel tight or to restrict a person's range of movement.