Healthy granulation tissue is pink in colour and is an indicator of healing. Unhealthy granulation is dark red in colour, often bleeds on contact, and may indicate the presence of wound infection.
There are four stages of wound healing - Hemostasis, inflammatory, proliferation, and maturation.
Discharge - If the wound is discharging small amounts of pus, it is a positive sign of healing. However, if there is continuous drainage and you start noticing bad odor or have discoloration, the wound is likely infected.
Purulent Wound Drainage
Purulent drainage is a sign of infection. It's a white, yellow, or brown fluid and might be slightly thick in texture.
Pus is a whitish-yellow, yellow, or brown-yellow protein-rich fluid called liquor puris that accumulates at the site of an infection. It consists of a buildup of dead, white blood cells that form when the body's immune system responds to the infection.
Pus is a substance that is produced by a battle between our immune cells and bacteria. “A wound that's oozing pus definitely means you have a bacterial infection,” said Dr. Brady Didion, a Marshfield Clinic Health System family medicine physician.
Pus appears green due to an antibacterial protein called myeloperoxidase. It's made by certain white blood cells. Green pus is a potential warning sign of a pseudomonas bacterial infection caused by a bacterium called Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This color of pus is often accompanied by a foul odor.
Abscesses tend to get worse as time goes on. Symptoms include tenderness or pain and the site of the abscess being warm to the touch.
pain and tenderness in the affected area. warmth and redness in the affected area. a visible build-up of white or yellow pus under the skin in the affected area. a high temperature.
If your abscess was opened with an Incision and Drainage: Keep the abscess covered 24 hours a day, removing bandages once daily to wash with warm soap and water. If the abscess was packed (with a cotton wick), leave it in until instructed by your clinician to remove the packing or return for re-evaluation.
An abscess that forms in the surface of the skin might look like an unhealed wound or a pimple. An abscess that forms underneath the skin may create a swollen bump. The area can be painful and tender. In the most severe cases, the infection can cause fever and chills.
After the initial discharge of a bit of pus and blood, your wound should be clear. If the discharge continues through the wound healing process and begins to smell bad or have discoloration, it's probably a sign of infection.
However, antibiotics alone may not be enough to clear a skin abscess, and the pus may need to be drained to clear the infection. If a skin abscess is not drained, it may continue to grow and fill with pus until it bursts, which can be painful and can cause the infection to spread or come back.
Any access drainage should stop within a couple of days. Pain from the wound will gradually go away. The abscess should heal completely within two weeks.
Do not squeeze the pus out of the abscess yourself, because this can easily spread the bacteria to other areas of your skin. If you use tissues to wipe any pus away from your abscess, dispose of them straight away to avoid germs spreading. Wash your hands after you've disposed of the tissues.
Although pus is normally of a whitish-yellow hue, changes in the color can be observed under certain circumstances. Pus is sometimes green because of the presence of myeloperoxidase, an intensely green antibacterial protein produced by some types of white blood cells.
Pain is an essential indicator of poor wound healing and should not be underestimated. Pain can occur from the disease process, surgery, trauma, infection or as a result of dressing changes and poor wound management practices.
Once the wound has formed a scab, there is no longer the need to cover it with a bandage as the scab now acts as a protective barrier. Keep the area clean, but be gentle so that you do not accidentally remove the scab.
A handful of studies have found that when wounds are kept moist and covered, blood vessels regenerate faster and the number of cells that cause inflammation drop more rapidly than they do in wounds allowed to air out. It is best to keep a wound moist and covered for at least five days.