When is a chronic wound infected?

摘要

"The germ is nothing. It is the terrain in which it is found that is everything."-Louis Pasteur, 1880.Humans are not germ free. In fact, the number of bacterial cells in our body exceeds the number of all our other cells. We live in relative harmony with our bacterial flora. Therefore, the presence of bacteria alone is not an indication of infection.Intact skin is one of the major barriers to development of infection. A break in the skin; that is, a wound, opens the possibility of bacterial penetration and infection. The consequences of wound infection are formidable: delayed wound healing, extension of infection into muscle (necrosis) or bone (osteomyelitis) or bloodstream (sepsis), and increased mortality.1 Thus, determining when infection is present is critical to effective wound management.