Studies in the Healing of Cutaneous Wounds

Abstract

THIS constitutes the third and last of a series of studies of different aspects of the healing of standard transcutaneous incisions in the backs of young pigs. In the first of these studies, Part I,¹ attention was focused solely on the clinically and histologically detectable changes within the scalpel incision itself when uncomplicated by the effects thereon of sutures generally used for closing such wounds. Part II² dealt primarily with the reactions, clinically but especially histologically, of all the component tissues of the skin both to the injuries inflicted by the suture needles and also to the subsequent effects of the persisting suture as a particular type of foreign body, in a specific tissue—the skin. Attention was there also drawn to the need for recognizing and carefully considering the implications, in all their aspects, of the reactions in the incision, suture needle puncture wounds (SNPWs) and suture tracks