Your body is set up to start healing as soon as it’s cut or injured. But sometimes, for any number of reasons, the body doesn’t do exactly what it’s supposed to when it’s supposed to.
Sometimes a wound takes a long time to heal or gets infected and stops the healing process altogether. It’s important to pay attention to the stages of wound healing so you know whether your wound is going in the right direction.
Alyssa Smolen, APRN, is a wound care expert at OSF HealthCare who shared how to tell if a wound is healing or infected.
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“How long it takes for a cut to heal can vary depending on the wound. If you notice your cut isn’t healing within a month, it’s considered a chronic wound and it’s time to talk to a wound care specialist, ” Alyssa said.
Keeping track of your wound and the stage of healing it’s in can help to identify whether it’s a healing or non-healing wound. Sign of healing include:
“If your wound is non-healing or slow-healing, are considered chronic wounds. There are many options your provider may suggest, including oral prescription medication to improve blood flow, topical prescriptions to help clear up any infection, wound debridement, hyperbaric oxygen treatment or therapy to reduce swelling, ” Alyssa said.
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Wound debridement is a process of removing dead or infected tissue from around a wound. This helps a wound to heal faster and ensures that healthy tissue can grow.
“If you have a wound that continuously bleeds or has shown no signs of closing after a day, it’s important to talk to a health care provider, ” Alyssa said.
“Antibiotic ointments such a Neosporin and Bacitracin can be helpful early on to prevent infection but are not appropriate to use on chronic wounds or non-infected wounds, ” Alyssa said.I completed my M.S. from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune. I currently study wound pathogens and wound infections in the Institute of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, India. Fascinated by all things bacterial, I am particularly interested in studying bacterial pathogens and understanding host-pathogen interactions in different kinds of infections. When I am not in the lab, I am either reading, dancing, or finding new places, and food to explore!
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Karishma is a medical doctor and a scientist. She spent almost 15 years earning her degrees, and proudly says she enjoyed being in school! She currently leads a young and dynamic group of researchers in India and they explore wound infections and biofilms. Apart from her life in the lab, she loves spending time with her husband and their young son, and together they have traveled to six continents! *karishmaskaushik@gmail.com
I am a happy and bubbly boy. I love gardening and spend lots of time outdoors tending to my tomato and chili plants. I love to play the Piano and the song that I like to play the most is “Waltzing Matilda.” I also sing and I am a member of a choir. My favorite song to sing is “Try Everything” from the movie Zootopia. I also like to swim and play Badminton.
We have all experienced a wound, a local injury to the skin, at some point in our lives. Most often, wounds heal completely and a scab is the only sign of the injury. Except for the initial pain and bleeding, we might not pay much attention to the process by which the wound repairs or the possible complications that could arise. The process of wound healing involves a well-coordinated series of steps involving many cells, tissues, and chemicals in the body. Interruptions to the wound healing process, often caused by the presence of bacteria, lead to major disturbances and delays in wound repair. Further, some forms of bacteria can be resistant to antibiotics, making it difficult to treat infected wounds. In this article, we discuss the stages of wound healing, explain how bacteria can delay this process, and describe simple steps that you can adopt to prevent wound infections.
How Long Does A Yeast Infection Last?
Ouch! Do you remember the last time you fell on the playground and injured your skin? Or accidently slashed your fingertip while using a knife? Maybe it was not very long ago. You might also remember what happened after that. The injury might have oozed some blood, which stopped soon after to reveal reddish, damaged skin. If the injury was deep, you may have visited the doctor. The doctor would have cleaned the damaged skin and covered it with a bandage. Over the next few days, you may have observed the injured skin change colors from bright red to bluish-black, and finally, the injury would have been replaced with fresh skin. After the damaged skin has healed, you may see a flesh-colored scar at the location of the injury. If this sounds familiar, it means that your accidental injury resulted in what is called a wound, which was followed by the normal steps of recovery known as wound healing. It is likely that your wound eventually healed without any problems.
The skin is the largest organ of the body and it acts as a protective covering shielding the body from the outer environment. The epidermis is the outermost layer of the skin, consisting of cells known as keratinocytes. The middle layer, or dermis, contains another type of skin cell known as fibroblasts, and blood vessels that carry blood to and from the skin. The dermis also has tissue fibers that provide support to cells within the skin.
A break in these layers of the skin, often resulting from a blow or cut, can cause a disturbance in the skin’s structure and function, and is known as a wound. Superficial wounds are injuries to only the epidermis. Deep wounds extend all the way into the dermis, causing greater damage to skin cells and tissue fibers, resulting in a gap in the skin. In deep wounds, the blood vessels also get damaged, leading to leaks, which is why these wounds bleed. So, what happens after we get hurt and how does the body respond to a wound?
How To Tell If You Have A Wound Infection
After an injury, the body starts repairing damaged skin through the process of wound healing, which involves a set of four well-coordinated steps (Figure 1) [1]. The first step involves stopping the blood flow by formation of a blood clot at the wound, and this happens almost immediately after an injury. To form a clot, blood components interact to form a loose plug of protein strands and blood cells at the wound site. Next, large numbers of immune cells arrive at the wound site through blood vessels, releasing chemicals that start to build new tissue in the wound. In the third stage, the wound is gradually filled with new skin tissue that replaces the gap created by the injury. This works somewhat like building blocks, in which different types of skin proteins act as a solid, sticky surface on which many layers of skin cells can attach and grow. In the final stage of wound healing, this new skin tissue gets strengthened and completely fills the wound. This step replaces the damaged tissue with scar tissue that closely resembles normal skin. This completes the process of wound healing. The entire process of wound healing starts immediately after injury and usually takes a few weeks. However, in certain situations, wounds do not follow this coordinated repair process, taking a long time to heal or not healing at all. Why do some wounds fail to heal properly?
One of the main reasons that wounds may fail to heal properly is the presence and growth of microbes, which are very tiny forms of life, in the wound. Microbes are tiny organisms that cannot be seen with the naked eye. While many microbes are beneficial to us, certain harmful microbes can make us sick, and this is known as an infection. When harmful microbes live and reproduce in a wound, it leads to a wound infection [2]. Wound infections slow down and sometimes prevent the process of healing. Bacteria are the microbes that most often cause wound infections, and a wound can commonly be infected with more than one type of bacteria. But how do bacteria enter wounds in the first place? One possibility is through an object or material that has bacteria on it, like maybe an unclean knife or soil from the playground. Another possibility is that bacteria from the surrounding air can settle on an open wound surface. In fact, this is why doctors often cover wounds with bandages—to prevent exposure to microorganisms in the air. The skin does have defense strategies to remove bacteria that settle on the wound, and often bacteria are killed and wound healing resumes. However, conditions, such as improper cleaning of the wound, poor general health, old age, or diseases, such as diabetes can weaken the skin’s protective systems, increasing the chances of wound infections. These situations may lead to non-healing wounds, which can increase pain, discomfort, and time and money spent in the hospital or on treatment. In extreme cases, spread of the infection can also
Karishma is a medical doctor and a scientist. She spent almost 15 years earning her degrees, and proudly says she enjoyed being in school! She currently leads a young and dynamic group of researchers in India and they explore wound infections and biofilms. Apart from her life in the lab, she loves spending time with her husband and their young son, and together they have traveled to six continents! *karishmaskaushik@gmail.com
I am a happy and bubbly boy. I love gardening and spend lots of time outdoors tending to my tomato and chili plants. I love to play the Piano and the song that I like to play the most is “Waltzing Matilda.” I also sing and I am a member of a choir. My favorite song to sing is “Try Everything” from the movie Zootopia. I also like to swim and play Badminton.
We have all experienced a wound, a local injury to the skin, at some point in our lives. Most often, wounds heal completely and a scab is the only sign of the injury. Except for the initial pain and bleeding, we might not pay much attention to the process by which the wound repairs or the possible complications that could arise. The process of wound healing involves a well-coordinated series of steps involving many cells, tissues, and chemicals in the body. Interruptions to the wound healing process, often caused by the presence of bacteria, lead to major disturbances and delays in wound repair. Further, some forms of bacteria can be resistant to antibiotics, making it difficult to treat infected wounds. In this article, we discuss the stages of wound healing, explain how bacteria can delay this process, and describe simple steps that you can adopt to prevent wound infections.
How Long Does A Yeast Infection Last?
Ouch! Do you remember the last time you fell on the playground and injured your skin? Or accidently slashed your fingertip while using a knife? Maybe it was not very long ago. You might also remember what happened after that. The injury might have oozed some blood, which stopped soon after to reveal reddish, damaged skin. If the injury was deep, you may have visited the doctor. The doctor would have cleaned the damaged skin and covered it with a bandage. Over the next few days, you may have observed the injured skin change colors from bright red to bluish-black, and finally, the injury would have been replaced with fresh skin. After the damaged skin has healed, you may see a flesh-colored scar at the location of the injury. If this sounds familiar, it means that your accidental injury resulted in what is called a wound, which was followed by the normal steps of recovery known as wound healing. It is likely that your wound eventually healed without any problems.
The skin is the largest organ of the body and it acts as a protective covering shielding the body from the outer environment. The epidermis is the outermost layer of the skin, consisting of cells known as keratinocytes. The middle layer, or dermis, contains another type of skin cell known as fibroblasts, and blood vessels that carry blood to and from the skin. The dermis also has tissue fibers that provide support to cells within the skin.
A break in these layers of the skin, often resulting from a blow or cut, can cause a disturbance in the skin’s structure and function, and is known as a wound. Superficial wounds are injuries to only the epidermis. Deep wounds extend all the way into the dermis, causing greater damage to skin cells and tissue fibers, resulting in a gap in the skin. In deep wounds, the blood vessels also get damaged, leading to leaks, which is why these wounds bleed. So, what happens after we get hurt and how does the body respond to a wound?
How To Tell If You Have A Wound Infection
After an injury, the body starts repairing damaged skin through the process of wound healing, which involves a set of four well-coordinated steps (Figure 1) [1]. The first step involves stopping the blood flow by formation of a blood clot at the wound, and this happens almost immediately after an injury. To form a clot, blood components interact to form a loose plug of protein strands and blood cells at the wound site. Next, large numbers of immune cells arrive at the wound site through blood vessels, releasing chemicals that start to build new tissue in the wound. In the third stage, the wound is gradually filled with new skin tissue that replaces the gap created by the injury. This works somewhat like building blocks, in which different types of skin proteins act as a solid, sticky surface on which many layers of skin cells can attach and grow. In the final stage of wound healing, this new skin tissue gets strengthened and completely fills the wound. This step replaces the damaged tissue with scar tissue that closely resembles normal skin. This completes the process of wound healing. The entire process of wound healing starts immediately after injury and usually takes a few weeks. However, in certain situations, wounds do not follow this coordinated repair process, taking a long time to heal or not healing at all. Why do some wounds fail to heal properly?
One of the main reasons that wounds may fail to heal properly is the presence and growth of microbes, which are very tiny forms of life, in the wound. Microbes are tiny organisms that cannot be seen with the naked eye. While many microbes are beneficial to us, certain harmful microbes can make us sick, and this is known as an infection. When harmful microbes live and reproduce in a wound, it leads to a wound infection [2]. Wound infections slow down and sometimes prevent the process of healing. Bacteria are the microbes that most often cause wound infections, and a wound can commonly be infected with more than one type of bacteria. But how do bacteria enter wounds in the first place? One possibility is through an object or material that has bacteria on it, like maybe an unclean knife or soil from the playground. Another possibility is that bacteria from the surrounding air can settle on an open wound surface. In fact, this is why doctors often cover wounds with bandages—to prevent exposure to microorganisms in the air. The skin does have defense strategies to remove bacteria that settle on the wound, and often bacteria are killed and wound healing resumes. However, conditions, such as improper cleaning of the wound, poor general health, old age, or diseases, such as diabetes can weaken the skin’s protective systems, increasing the chances of wound infections. These situations may lead to non-healing wounds, which can increase pain, discomfort, and time and money spent in the hospital or on treatment. In extreme cases, spread of the infection can also
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