Nociceptive pain – This kind of pain arises due to damage in the tissue at the wound site. Described mostly as throbbing or aching sensation, the nerve endings in the damaged tissue pick up sensory signals from the wound and send them to the brain.
Normally pain will gradually subside if a wound is healing, so long-lasting or increasing pain is a sign of infection.
It's normal for pain to accompany a wound. You can take acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil) as directed on the package. Avoid aspirin products, since they can cause or prolong bleeding. Apply ice if you have bruising or swelling, and avoid picking at scabs.
Signs it's working: During this stage of healing, you may experience swelling, redness or pain while your wound heals. Your skin may also feel hot to the touch, and you may see a clear liquid around your wound. These are all signs that the inflammatory stage of wound healing is well underway.
According to the World Union of Wound Healing Societies, wound pain can be caused by tissue damage (nociceptive pain) or a dysfunction of the nervous system (neuropathic pain). Both types of wound pain have unique origins and characteristics and both respond differently to treatment modalities.
Phase 2: Inflammation
This phase works to kill bacteria and remove debris with white and other blood cells. Inflammation ensures that your wound is clean and ready for new tissue to start growing. This phase can be the most painful of all.
You might feel sharp, shooting pains in your wound area. This may be a sign that you're getting sensations back in your nerves. The feeling should become less intense and happen less often over time, but check with your doctor if you're concerned.
The wound becomes slightly swollen, red or pink, and tender. You also may see some clear fluid oozing from the wound. This fluid helps clean the area. Blood vessels open in the area, so blood can bring oxygen and nutrients to the wound.
Pain - Pain is a normal condition after sustaining an injury. In case of deep wounds, you may suffer more prevalent while the severe wounds that affect beneath the surface of the skin will generally resolve itself within two days. But if there is long-lasting pain, it can also be a sign of infection.
Pain can have a throbbing quality, especially when it is severe and disabling. It is widely held that this throbbing quality is a primary sensation of one's own arterial pulsations, arising directly from the activation of localized pain-sensory neurons by closely apposed blood vessels.
Acute inflammation can cause pain of varying types and severity. Pain may be constant and steady, throbbing and pulsating, stabbing, or pinching. Pain results when the buildup of fluid leads to swelling, and the swollen tissues push against sensitive nerve endings.
Often, right at the beginning of the healing process, your wound feels warm. This is because the white blood cells are fighting germs or bacteria. But, if the injury is feeling warm after the first five days, it may mean your body is fighting to keep bacteria and infection away.
Indicators of wound infection include redness, swelling, purulent exudate, smell, pain, and systemic illness in the absence of other foci. Subtle signs of local wound infection include unhealthy “foamy” granulation tissue, contact bleeding, tissue breakdown, and epithelial bridging.
Bony stress injuries can feel worse at night due to increased inflammatory processes happening at night. This process is important to bring necessary cells to the affected site for growth and remodelling or healing to occur.
Signs that a wound is not healing properly and may be infected include feeling warm to the touch, swelling, discharge or pus, long lasting pain, or fever.
Wounds need to be covered so that they can heal properly. When a wound is left uncovered, the new surface cells that are being created can easily dry out. When these important cells dry out, it tends to slow down the healing process. A wound should be covered using a clean bandage.
Leaving a wound uncovered helps it stay dry and helps it heal. If the wound isn't in an area that will get dirty or be rubbed by clothing, you don't have to cover it.
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.
Wounds generally heal in 4 to 6 weeks. Chronic wounds are those that fail to heal within this timeframe. Many factors can lead to impaired healing. The primary factors are hypoxia, bacterial colonization, ischemia, reperfusion injury, altered cellular response, and collagen synthesis defects.
The reduction in mean pain score (95% CI) on activity was 31mm (28–34 mm) for paracetamol, 30mm (26–34 mm) for ibuprofen, and 32mm (29–36 mm) for combined group.
It differs from sharp pain in that sharp pain is more intense, but lasts for less time than dull pain. Dull pain can linger for longer periods of time – sometimes even weeks or months – due to the underlying cause of the discomfort.
The most common type of pain, acute pain is defined as short-term pain that occurs suddenly and is related to a specific cause. Acute pain improves as your body heals and lasts less than 12 weeks. Pain that lasts more than 12 weeks is considered chronic pain.
Fibrous connective tissues like ligaments and tendons as well as bones, cartilage, and nerves tend to take the longest to heal.