Case Study On Physiological Basis Of The Wound Observations

This case study represents the case of a 21 years old young woman named Mary who had presented to the emergency department with the compliant of an infected laceration on her left foot. The patient described the origin of attaining the wound in a beach resort 4 days ago where she stepped on a broken glass bottle and attained a deep 2 cm long jagged laceration over the lateral aspect of her left foot. The patient further informed that after attaining the wound in the beach she used her handkerchief to cover the wound and stop bleeding. The patient mentioned that as she woke in the morning that day, her laceration wound was extremely painful, swollen, and also had a purulent discharge.

Exploring the physiology of the laceration can be defined as a torn or jagged wound which is generally caused by sharp objects. Laceration is a type of wound that causes irregular wound, and as the wound that the patient attained was 2 cm long and has the chances of seeping into the subcutaneous tissues including underlying muscle, internal organs, or bone. Such laceration wounds are accompanied by pain and significant bleeding. It has to be mentioned that the most important course of action in case of laceration wounds are to terminate the bleeding using sterilized techniques. In this case, the patient used her handkerchief to bandage the wound which can be a contaminated piece of clothing transferring bacteria to the wound and facilitating the infection of the laceration wound, which had been the case for the patient in the case study as well.

Exploring the physiology of the laceration can be defined as a torn or jagged wound which is generally caused by sharp objects. Laceration is a type of wound that causes irregular wound, and as the wound that the patient attained was 2 cm long and has the chances of seeping into the subcutaneous tissues including underlying muscle, internal organs, or bone. Such laceration wounds are accompanied by pain and significant bleeding. It has to be mentioned that the most important course of action in case of laceration wounds are to terminate the bleeding using sterilized techniques. In this case, the patient used her handkerchief to bandage the wound which can be a contaminated piece of clothing transferring bacteria to the wound and facilitating the infection of the laceration wound, which had been the case for the patient in the case study as well. The observations of the wound had been painful and swollen, appearing red and warm to touch, along with having a purulent discharge. It has to be mentioned that inflammation is the most common clinical manifestation of infection which is generally localized to the wound tissue. The redness observed in the wound and the surrounding tissue is generally concerned as the normal inflammatory process of the wound healing, however for persistent and expanding redness indicated infection progress under the tissue. Along with that, the purulent discharge or pus discharge is a tell-tale sign of infected wound. This purulent discharge, also known as Liquor puris, is the protein rich fluid that is whitish-yellow or brown-yellow in colour that accumulates at the site of infection as a result of the process of pathogenic proliferation.

Lastly, the wound was also appearing warm to touch which indicates that the innate response of the immune system of the body to fight the infection that has occurred