ABSTRACT
Wound healing is a normal response to injury when the skin integrity has been damaged. Wounds can be classified as either acute or chronic. Acute wounds are caused by trauma or surgery and include incisions, lacerations, burns, scalds, puncture, contusion, friction, pressure and shearing. The aim of wound care is to ‘prevent build-up of unwanted tissue types on the wound bed, while encouraging the growth of granulation and epithelial tissue to repair the wound’. Surgical wounds may heal by primary, secondary or tertiary intention. Complications of surgical wounds include surgical site infection and dehiscence. Dehiscence of the wound may occur due to the trauma and swelling caused by the surgical procedure, obesity, and too much tissue loss resulting in a greater tension on the wound closure and infection or underlying wound abscess. Traumatic wounds are likely to be dirty and require irrigation and debridement. Infective wounds and clean wounds older than six hours should never be closed.
