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.
Steps in the process of inflammation
 |
| Inflammatory response |
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.