How does your body heal wounds?

Answer 1

Most of us take wound healing for granted. When we get a small cut, we may clean and cover it with any bandage but, yet under that bandage (or in the open air), our body orchestrates a complex cascade of events designed to heal wounds big and small. When our skin is cut, scraped, or punctured, we usually begin to bleed. Within few minutes or even seconds, unless we have a bleeding disorder, blood cells begin to clump together and clot, protecting the wound and preventing further blood loss.

Answer 2

Immediately when a wound occurs, platelets try to clot the blood flow. (We can assist this by applying pressure over a wound.) This forms a soft covering; if picked at, it will start to bleed again.

As well, immediately, a mechanism in cells called macrophages begin to do "clean up". They take away debris (or try to wall it off), get rid of bacteria or pus if an infection has started, and begin the initial phase of healing. Because of all this cellular activity at the wound site, the site can become slightly warm and slightly swollen--this is normal because blood is pulled to the site as macrophages use blood flow to shuttle away the wastes.

The next phase is granulation of tissues---granulation is the creation of new tissue. It starts at the deepest part first, as cells repair the cut portion and create new layers of tissue. It is like filling an ice cream cone that has a deepest point....and ice cream layers are added repeatedly to fill up the cone.

In a few days to a week, the soft blood clot hardens. It is slowly replaced by a crust of dead tissue. New tissue is continually being made in layers, so eventually, the crusty scab will fall off and leave behind newly healed skin.

If a cut is thin, the body's healing leaves very little scarring. If the cut is deep or wide, the tissue laying creates a scar, which is both on the outside and a few layers into the inside of the old wound.