Purulent inflammation: description, causes, types and features of treatment

Purulent inflammation is quite relevanttopic for discussion, as recently more and more people began to turn to doctors with similar problems. The reasons for such a sharp deterioration in the health status of the population may be different factors. We want to talk about them and much more in our article. The information collected is aimed at helping victims of such a disease.

What is inflammation?

Purulent inflammation is one of the formsdiseases, and before we begin to deal with its types, we need to understand what it is. Even ancient healers determined that this is a protective reaction of the human body to an irritant. Both the virus and the splinter can act as an irritant. There are many terms that characterize this process, but the most basic is phagocytosis, which the famous Mechnikov talked about, that is, the process of destroying an irritating agent inside the cell.

Causes of purulent inflammation

In medicine, there are several possible causes when decay begins. Among the most common options are:

• ingress of infections and their toxin into the human body;
• the effects of external factors, such as burns, radiation, frostbite;
• consequences of bruises or other types of injuries;
• chemical irritants;
• internal processes in the body, such as tissue necrosis or salt deposition.

What happens the moment it startspurulent tissue inflammation? To understand the essence, let's take the simplest example: a splinter hit. When it just got into the skin, it can be absolutely impossible to pull it out, but after a while we can easily remove it from the skin with pus, which manages to collect during this time. What happened, and why did pus collect, how did purulent inflammation begin? A splinter that has entered the skin is perceived by the body as a foreign body and a threat. How does the body react? It increases blood flow in the affected area, blood brings with it many useful elements that work like clockwork, and each of them performs its task:

• the platelet sticks together with its own kind and thus forms a protective layer on the wound;
• the red blood cell supplies the affected area of ​​the skin or organ with oxygen;
• plasma brings nutrients for the speedy healing of wounds;
• white bodies (leukocytes) engage in battle with a directly foreign body.

Откуда же берется гной?The fact is that in the process of struggle, white blood cells die, their role is to clutch a foreign body, absorb it and destroy it. But, destroying the enemy, the white blood cell is destroyed itself, while acquiring a yellowish color, this is pus. If in the process of combating an irritant certain parts of the skin or organ die off, the leukocyte also covers the dead parts to prevent them from developing the process in the body. Thus, leukocytes pus pave the way up. If you have pain when pressing on purulent inflammation, it means that nerve endings, of which there are a lot in the body, were affected. In this case, you need to carefully examine the affected area so as not to get a complication.

Forms of inflammation

Given where the process began, and how strong or weak the person’s immunity is, we can distinguish these forms of purulent inflammation:

• Abscess - so called purulent formation,which is formed in the tissue, while it is isolated in a separate capsule. The formation of an abscess indicates good human immunity. A protective crust immediately begins to form around it, preventing the infection from spreading. Purulent inflammation of the tooth is often characterized this way.
• Phlegmon - characterized by more looseconsistency of education, which most often occurs in the space between the muscles. It is an indicator that a person does not have very good immunity. Most often, a patient is admitted to a hospital to solve a problem.
• Empyema is the collection of pus in organs with a hollow structure. In this case, the boundaries of the abscess is the natural tissue of the organ.

Purulent inflammation

There are two types of inflammation:acute and chronic. Acute purulent inflammation spreads quite quickly, and soon we can observe a splash of exudate outward, either on the surface of the skin or in an adjacent organ cavity. A large amount of pus can lead to intoxication of the body, and, as a result, to its depletion. Chronic purulent inflammation changes the composition of the cell, and lymphocytes and microphages begin to appear in its composition. Also, this form is characterized by the formation of scars and hardenings, but all this is possible only with the wrong decision.

Disease outcome

Of course, the outcome of the disease, like any other disease, depends on the correctness of the treatment and the nature of the wound. What is the first thing to be afraid of?

• Scarring. Rarely, who are decorated with scars after an unsuccessful fight against inflammation.
• Bleeding. If the disease has reached the lymph nodes, then there may be just such a variant of the outcome.
• Gangrene. This is one of the most terrible options, the death of tissues begins, that is, necrosis.

Purulent skin inflammation

Most often, we are all faced with this type of inflammation. In what options can we see it?

• Pyoderma - appears due to improper handling of insect bites, small skin incisions, etc. On the skin it looks like small bubbles around a wound.
• Follicle - in this case, a hair bag is threatened, it begins to fester.
• A boil is a melting of a hair follicle. A dangerous factor is that it very easily develops into a furunculosis disease, when many such formations are already observed.
• Carbuncle is also an abscess on the skin, but of a large size, it is usually treated using surgical methods, after which there remains a large empty cavity in the skin, then scars appear on the site of the wound.
• Hydradenitis is a purulent mass in the groin or armpit at the site of the sebaceous glands.

Complications

What will end the process of decay depends on several important factors:

• degree of aggression of the annoying element;
• depth of infection;
• quality of the victim’s immunity.

After treatment has ended and the cavity withpus emptied, in its place remains soft tissue, which is then replaced by fresh skin, but scarring is possible. If the treatment was not carried out correctly, then the process of complication may begin, which does not reflect well on the person’s condition:

• pus can spread to other tissues and organs;
• in the process of decay, the infection can enter the bloodstream, and as a result, sepsis, bleeding and thrombosis can begin;
• the death of the skin and organ tissues;
• weakening of the immune system and the general condition of the human body, which can lead to underdevelopment of organs.

Treatment

Depending on the severity of the disease, treatment also occurs. Both home treatment and surgical intervention, as well as hospital treatment, are allowed.

Consider the options for possible treatment:

• with an abscess, an incision is made to the person and the cavity is washed, where there was pus, the wound is closed from environmental influences;
• with phlegmon, the use of drugs is necessary after opening the abscesses and deep cleaning;
• with epidemic, surgicalthe intervention, when the organ tissue is opened, pus is removed, the cavity is cleaned, then intensive treatment is carried out, aimed at raising immunity and healing the wound.

It is important to know that in the treatment of various kindsulcers must be avoided contact with water, you can not do any compresses or massages, so as not to provoke the spread of infection. The skin must be treated with special means for the same purpose. Zelenka and iodine are the most frequent alcohol solutions that are used for this purpose.

If you are faced with an elementary splinter, then,Of course, you can deal with it at home, but you also need to be very careful. Before removing the splinter, you need to carefully process both the affected area of ​​the skin and the tool with which you will remove it. After extraction, you need to immediately treat the skin with alcohol and seal the wound with a band-aid until healing or the formation of a protective crust.

Antibiotics

The use of antibiotics is allowed only understrict supervision of the attending physician. Self-medication is not allowed, as this can significantly worsen the condition of the patient. Before you start taking the medicine, you need to determine the sensitivity of the person to its components. Of course, antibiotics are not recommended if they are not urgently needed. It is important to remember that the use of antibiotics, especially uncontrolled ones, can harm the normal functioning of the body. After you suspect a purulent inflammation, immediately consult a specialist for help. If you have had surgery and left scars, then modern plastic surgery can fix any flaws.