(1) A hurt or injury caused by violence; specifically, a breach of the skin and flesh of an animal, or in the substance of any creature or living thing; a cut, stab, rent, or the like. Showers of blood Rained from the wounds of slaughtered Englishmen. (Shak)
(2) An injury to the person by which the skin is divided, or its continuity broken; a lesion of the body, involving some solution of continuity.
(3) Trauma; an injury, usually restricted to a physical one with disruption of normal continuity of structures.
- contused wound one in which the skin is unbroken.
- incised wound one caused by a cutting instrument.
- lacerated wound one in which the tissues are torn.
- open wound one having a free outward opening.
- penetrating wound one caused by a sharp, usually slender object, which passes through the skin into the underlying tissues.
- perforating wound a penetrating wound that extends into a viscus or body cavity.
- pocket wound - chronic, nonhealing wound in which there is granulation tissue but the overlying skin does not adhere. Seen most commonly in the axillae or groin of cats.
- puncture wound penetrating w.
- sucking wound - a penetrating wound of the chest through which air is drawn in and out.
- surgical wound - one deliberately produced during a surgical procedure, e.g. the original incision.
- tangential wound - an oblique, glancing wound which results in one edge being undercut.
- traumatopneic wound - sucking wound.
- wound débridement - The act of debriding (removing dead, contaminated or adherent tissue or foreign material). Debridement encompasses enzymatic debridement (as with proteolytic enzymes), mechanical nonselective debridement (as in a whirlpool), and sharp debridement (by surgery).
- wound dehiscence - /de·his·cence/ (de-his´ins) a splitting open.
- wound drain - any device by which a channel or open area may be established for the exit of material from a wound or cavity. See also drain, drainage, wound healing (below).
- wound healing - the restoration of integrity to injured tissues by replacement of dead tissue with viable tissue. The process starts immediately after an injury and may continue for months or years, and is essentially the same for all types of wounds. Variations in wound healing are the result of differences in location, severity of the wound, and the extent of injury to the tissues. Other factors affecting wound healing are the age, nutritional status and general state of health of the animal and its body reserves and resources for the regeneration of tissue.
In healing by first intention (primary union), restoration of tissue continuity occurs directly, without granulation; in healing by second intention (secondary union), wound repair following tissue loss (as in ulceration or an open wound), is accomplished by closure of the wound with granulation tissue. This tissue is formed by proliferation of fibroblasts and extensive capillary budding at the outer edges and base of the wound cavity. Healing by third intention (delayed primary closure) occurs when a wound is initially too contaminated to close and is closed surgically 4 or 5 days after the injury.
The insertion of drains can facilitate healing by providing an outlet for removing accumulations of serosanguineous fluid and purulent material, and obliterating dead space.
wound healing agents - topical agents which stimulate healing; includes preparations containing zinc, trypsin, neomycin, dyes and iodine.
wound repair - n restoration of the normal structure after an injury.
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