NUM2306 - Unit Assignment: Body Response to Injury and Nursing Care

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the body's response to injury, specifically focusing on the inflammatory pathway triggered by a laceration. The assignment begins with an introduction to the body's homeostatic mechanisms and then delves into the case study of a 62-year-old builder, Daniel, who sustained a laceration. The core of the report explains the inflammatory response, detailing the stages of heat, pain, redness, and swelling. The report then examines the role of the immune system and the distinction between acute and chronic inflammation. It further describes the microcirculatory events, such as leukocyte recruitment and inflammatory mediator release, that occur during inflammation. The management of such injuries by health professionals is also discussed. The assignment also includes a concept map that visually represents the body's response to injury and the associated nursing care, including medications, aimed at assisting the healing process and addressing clinical manifestations. The report concludes with a reference list.

Running Head: INJURY
MECHANISM OF INJURY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

1INJURY
A human body is flexible and adaptive to the external stimuli in most of the cases but
sometimes it has its own ways to respond to certain type of external actions. Injuries are a form
of external action that alters the reaction of the body and it starts a number of mechanisms and
pathways to react to the pain. The first reaction of the body to an injury is an inflammatory
response because the aim is to heal. The first stages of the inflammatory response is heat, pain,
redness and swelling. Laceration is a form of injury that causes the tearing of skin and it leads to
an irregular wound as it caused by blunt forced object or a rapid force.
In this case study Daniel is a 62 years old and a builder due to his occupation. He has a
history of cardiovascular disease and because of that he felt dizzy while he was working, which
resulted to his fall that led to a laceration in his lower left leg. The defense of the body towards a
laceration is an inflammatory pathway that involves the immunity system (Dudley, 2016). It is an
immune system system’s response towards harmful stimuli such as toxic compounds, damaged
cells, and pathogens. It prepares the body for removing the injurious stimuli initiating the process
of healing. There are two types inflammation, which is known as acute and chronic, and the body
responds to both of them accordingly (Thomopoulos et al., 2015). When an acute injury occurs,
the inflammatory process starts to bring together the molecular and cellular events or interactions
to reduce the infection or the injury. This process is the mitigation that contributes to the
restoration of resolution of the acute inflammation and tissue homeostasis. When the acute
inflammation is not controlled by the body then it can cause chronic inflammation that can lead
to severe chronic diseases. Laceration in the tissue level has an inflammation that is followed by
swelling, redness, loss of tissue function, heat and pain. This happens due to the local immune,
inflammatory and vascular cell responses to the injury or infection. Some of the microcirculatory
events that occur during the process of inflammation are leukocyte recruitment and

2INJURY
accumulation, inflammatory mediator release and permeability changes. Tissue damage is caused
due to reduced inflammation and it happens because the body goes through certain stimuli such
as tissue injury, infection, or cardiac infarction (Quinn, Polevoi & Kohn, 2014).
The management of such injuries are done by health professionals by keeping in mind the
several aspects of tissue injury and its reactions. The first step is balancing the homeostasis or
inhibiting the bleeding and when it is stopped the wound is explored to check if there is any
involvement of bone, tendons, muscles, blood vessels or nerves. It is then treated with sterile
saline solution that helps in removing the debris or foreign substances. The wound is closed with
the help of sutures, tissue tapes or adhesives so that no further infection takes places depending
on the severity of the injury (Mankowitz, 2017).

3INJURY
Concept Map

4INJURY
References
Dudley, M. H. (2016). Blunt and Sharp Force Injuries. In Forensic Medicolegal Injury and
Death Investigation (pp. 105-114). CRC Press.
Mankowitz, S. L. (2017). Laceration management. The Journal of emergency medicine, 53(3),
369-382.
Quinn, J. V., Polevoi, S. K., & Kohn, M. A. (2014). Traumatic lacerations: what are the risks for
infection and has the ‘golden period’of laceration care disappeared?. Emergency
Medicine Journal, 31(2), 96-100.
Thomopoulos, S., Parks, W. C., Rifkin, D. B., & Derwin, K. A. (2015). Mechanisms of tendon
injury and repair. Journal of Orthopaedic Research, 33(6), 832-839.