(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.
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.