Of course, as a medical worker, I don't want everyone's body to be harmed, but how to judge and deal with unexpected situations that we can't control, and when we must go to the hospital to ask professionals to intervene?Today I would like to share with you this little knowledge point about the observation of wound infection.
Some friends have had similar life experiences, wound infection, nothing more than the wound becomes red, swollen, hot, painful, however, in the wound clinic work, there are many patients who come to the clinic after the trauma has occurred for many days, and the wound itself has not developed into an infected wound and is finally "raised" by us to become an infected state.
So what is a wound infection?What are the manifestations of wound infection?Why do wound infections occur?Below, we will lift the veil of wound infection for you around these three questions.
Wound infection textbook definition is pathological action or tissue damage caused by microorganisms invading wound tissue and multiplying. From the definition, we know that microorganisms should not exist in human tissues (except for the digestive system), so where do microorganisms come from?Once a "crack" is torn open in our human body, or our protective barrier is lost, bacteria and microorganisms will swarm from the air, surface, or anything that can reach the wound site to the internal tissues of the wound. In the process of bacterial multiplication, is our human body trying to "work"?The answer is, of course, yes, from the moment our ** is harmed by the outside world, our human body has mobilized the immune system to "investigate" it, and after discovering the "enemy situation", the immune system immediately began to "dispatch troops" and send the white blood cells with the highest executive power of our human body to "fight to the death" with the "enemy". At this moment, our wound bed is their battlefield, which is not only a battlefield, but it will inevitably be "red and hot", and what the wound shows us is the manifestation of "red, swollen and hot", so why do we feel pain?This is a complex process, in the case of damage or inflammation of our body's tissues, the damaged cells will release various endogenous pain-causing substances, and these pain-causing substances will activate pain receptors in different ways, more precisely nociceptors, and what are these receptors?It is the free nerve endings around us, the nervous system through a series of conduction to the brain after the sensation of pain, the purpose is to warn the human body, at this moment we should pay a certain attention to the wound. After collecting the well-known symptoms of "redness, swelling, heat, and pain", is the wound now infected?The answer is no, at this point our wounds are in a very important phase – the inflammatory phase. This stage is the only way for the wound to heal, but it will not last, and if the inflammatory response persists or becomes more and more severe after 3-5 days of the wound, or even pus is produced, the wound at this time, unfortunately, has reached the stage of infection that we least want to see.
In summary, wound infections typically present with redness, edema, pain, fever, and purulent exudate. These are signs of wound infection. But our human body is different, and the body's performance of wound infection is also different. For example, in diabetic patients, peripheral vascular diseases or autoimmune diseases, the symptoms of wound infection may lack the above typical manifestations, and may only manifest as local pain. Therefore, for different special patients, we should analyze them according to the specific situation, and we cannot generalize.
A good wound, why does a wound infection occur?
The internal tissue of the wound is a very suitable hotbed for microbial growth and reproduction, the growth rate of bacteria in the wound is beyond our imagination, bacterial contamination within a few minutes - 2-4 hours bacterial colonization - 6-12 hours bacterial heavy colonization or has appeared hidden ** infection, under ideal conditions, taking Escherichia coli as an example, 20 minutes can be cultivated to the next generation, 1 bacterium 8 hours of reproduction capacity per month 2 * 106, 10 hours of reproduction and turned into 1* 109, the number of bacteria is growing and multiplying wildly at a speed that is difficult for us to detect with the naked eye, and if the wound is not treated with timely disinfection and dressing, it will inevitably develop in the direction of infection, and then affect the healing of the wound.
What is the most beneficial measure to prevent wound infection?
Insisting on changing dressings is the basic measure and principle for preventing wound infection. Therefore, in the case of accidental trauma, you should seek medical attention in time, and complete each wound treatment under the guidance of the doctor or by yourself or in the hospital. Of course, the healing speed of different wounds is not the same, and it needs to be given correct guidance and control by professionals.
This is the little knowledge point about wound infection that I want to share with you, and I hope that friends can learn to self-monitor wounds in case of accidents, seek medical treatment in time, and stifle the signs of wound infection in the "cradle"!
Text|General Surgery Han Xuefeng.