acute inflammation

Inflammation is defined as a protective response that removes the initial cause of cell injury,gets rid of the damaged tissue and generate new tissue. It is the response of body tissue to injury,immune reaction and ischaemic damage.

Inflammation can be subdiveded into two types: acute and chronic inflammation. Five typical signs are shown as redness,heat feeling swelling,pain and loss of funtion respectively. With the appearance of signs in acute inflammation,four stages will take place one by one. They are incubation stage,prodromal stage,acute stage and recovery stage.

INCUBATION STAGE : pathogen actively multiplies and gets stronger to cause damage after moving to next stage,no recognizable symptoms in host can be seen currently,this stage may last long or short due to individual condion. Causes of first stage of acute inflammation are infections,trauma,tissue nercosis or physical and chemical agents or even the hypersensitivity of immune reaction.

PRODROMAL PHASE: initial appearance of symptoms such as mild fever,tiredness may occur.the duration is still variable. The signs and symptoms are produced by the mediators which mainly come from the plasma or cells,such as histamine or serotonin.

ACUTE PHASE: the worst stage of all,the maximum damage to the body can happen showing that the infection has spread,tissue damage and inflammation will occur. Local and systemic manifestations are shown like fever,leucocytosis or acute phase protein production in the liver.For this patient,the exudate is formed with purulent pus which is made up of degraded white cells,protein and tissue debris, the patient feels painful as the mediator is released.

RECOVERY STAGE : infection is contained, pathogen is eliminated ,damaged tissue is repaired,symptoms disappear. The time is still uncertain.during the stage,the patient may end up with complete reslution , abscess formation , ulceration , chronic inflammation or healing with the scar formation.

For more information, please phone 09-8150518 dr win acupuncture or visit us at 1054 new north road, mt albert, auckland.