We often feel redness, heat, swelling and pain at the site of wounds. Actually this is body’s defence mechanism to destroy the pathogen. Tissue damage caused by wound or invading pathogenic organisms induces a complex sequence of events collectively known as inflammation. Inflammation if localised to the site of infection or injury.
In the first century A.D Roman physician Celsus described four cardinal signs of inflammation as
- Rubor (redness) due to capillary dilation resulting increased blood flow
- Tumor (swelling) due to passage of plasma from the blood stream to the damaged site
- Calor (heat) due to capillary dilation resulting increased blood flow
- Dolor (pain) mainly due to destruction of tissue
Once intruder is destroyed, inflammation settles down.
1.Tissue damage caused by bacterial infection or injury
2.Release of vasodilators and chemotactic factors like histamine
3. This lead to increased capillary permeability and blood flow to the area
4. Margination followed by migration of phagocytes to the site of infection
5.The serum proteins along with phagocytes destroy bacteria.
6.Once intruder is destroyed, inflammation settles down.