Any skin lesion can become infected, with symptoms including swelling, redness, discharge, and pain. Swelling lasting more than three to five days, red streaks, foul-smelling discharge, and increasing pain are signs of serious infection.
Any skin lesion is at risk of infection. An infection can occur when bacteria from the environment enter an open wound, such as a scrape, cut, scrape, or puncture wound. While deep cuts that aren’t cleaned and lined properly are most at risk of infection, small scrapes that have been well cared for can also become infected. Some common symptoms of wound infection are swelling, redness, discharge, and pain. These symptoms, if left untreated, could lead to a more serious infection.
Swelling is one of the most common symptoms of wound infection. While some swelling around an area of wound is sometimes normal, any swelling that lasts for more than three to five days can be a sign of infection. If the swelling is due to a local infection, it will go beyond the wound area and look very red. Swelling caused by an infection will also typically feel warm or hot to the touch.
A little redness around a wound is often typical of a less serious infection. Red streaks that run away from the wound site towards the lymph nodes, however, can be a sign of a more serious infection. Lymphangitis is infection of the lymph vessels, often caused by streptococcal or staphylococcal bacteria. If this streak is noticed as one of the symptoms of an individual’s wound infection, immediate medical attention is strongly advised. This type of infection, if not treated quickly, can lead to much more serious and life-threatening complications, such as sepsis.
Any type of discharge from the wound site is often another common symptom that a wound has become infected. This discharge, often referred to as pus, can be cloudy, yellowish, or greenish, and can be very foul-smelling. It may sound pretty nasty, but this substance is usually a combination of dead skin cells, white blood cells, and bacteria. It is the body’s way of trying to flush the infection out of the body and it is important that it flushes out. Pus that gets trapped under the skin’s surface can form an abscess, which often needs to be drained by a doctor.
Pain around the wound site is another of the most common symptoms of wound infection. This may feel like tenderness or a burning pain on and around the wound site. Some pain or tenderness is to be expected with many types of wounds, but pain that intensifies instead of decreasing over time is typically a sign of infection. The pain is often accompanied by swelling, redness, and pus.
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