Wound

In medicine, a wound is a type of injury in which in the skin is torn, cut or punctured (an open wound), or where blunt force trauma causes a contusion (a closed wound). In pathology, it specifically refers to a sharp injury which damages the dermis of the skin.

Types of wounds

Wound, sewn with four stitches

A laceration to the leg

Open

Open wounds can be classified according to the object that caused the wound. The types of open wound are:

• Incisions or incised wounds, caused by a clean, sharp-edged object such as a knife, a razor or a glass splinter. Incisions which involve only the epidermis are legally classified as cuts, rather than wounds.^{[citation needed]}
• Lacerations, irregular wounds caused by a blunt impact to soft tissue that lies over hard tissue (e.g. laceration of the skin covering the skull) or tearing of skin and other tissues such as caused by childbirth. Lacerations may show bridging, as connective tissue or blood vessels are flattened against the underlying hard surface.^{[citation needed]} The term laceration is commonly misused in reference to injury with sharp objects, which would not display bridging (connective tissue and blood vessels are severed).
• Abrasions (grazes), superficial wounds in which the topmost layer of the skin (the epidermis) is scraped off. Abrasions are often caused by a sliding fall onto a rough surface.
• Puncture wounds, caused by an object puncturing the skin, such as a nail or needle.
• Penetration wounds, caused by an object such as a knife entering the body.
• Gunshot wounds, caused by a bullet or similar projectile driving into or through the body. There may be two wounds, one at the site of entry and one at the site of exit, such is generally known as a through-and-through.

In a medical context, stab wounds and gunshot wounds are considered major wounds.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Closed

Closed wounds have fewer categories, but are just as dangerous as open wounds. The types of closed wounds are:

• Contusions, more commonly known as bruises, caused by blunt force trauma that damages tissue under the skin.
• Hematomas, also called blood tumors, caused by damage to a blood vessel that in turn causes blood to collect under the skin.
• Crushing injuries, caused by a great or extreme amount of force applied over a long period of time.

To heal a wound, the body undertakes a series of actions collectively known as the wound healing process.

Infection

Bacterial infection of wound can impede the healing process and lead to life threatening complications. Scientists at Sheffield University have identified a way of using light to rapidly detect the presence of bacteria. They are developing a portable kit in which specially designed molecules emit a light signal when bound to bacteria. Current laboratory-based detection of bacteria can take hours or even days.

taken from wikipedia.org

Disease

A disease is an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions,^[1] associated with specific symptoms and signs.^[2][3]

In human beings,"disease" is often used more broadly to refer to any condition that causes extreme pain, dysfunction, distress, social problems, and/or death to the person afflicted, or similar problems for those in contact with the person. In this broader sense, it sometimes includes injuries, disabilities, disorders, syndromes, infections, isolated symptoms, deviant behaviors, and atypical variations of structure and function, while in other contexts and for other purposes these may be considered distinguishable categories

Some diseases such as influenza are contagious and infectious. Infectious diseases can be transmitted by any of a variety of mechanisms, including inhalation of aerosols produced by coughs and sneezes, by hand to mouth contact with infectious material on surfaces, by bites of insects or other carriers of the disease, and from contaminated water or food (often via faecal contamination), etc. In addition, there are sexually transmitted diseases. In some cases, micro-organisms that are not readily spread from person to person play a role, while other diseases can be prevented or ameliorated with appropriate nutrition or other lifestyle changes. Some diseases such as cancer, heart disease and mental disorders are, in most cases, not considered to be caused by infection, although there are important exceptions. Many diseases (including some cancers, heart disease and mental disorders) have a partially or completely genetic basis (see Genetic disorder) and may thus be transmitted from one generation to another.

[edit] Social significance of disease

Living with disease can be very difficult. The identification of a condition as a disease, rather than as simply a variation of human structure or function, can have significant social or economic implications. The controversial recognitions as diseases of post-traumatic stress disorder, also known as "Soldier's heart," "shell shock," and "combat fatigue;" repetitive motion injury or repetitive stress injury (RSI); and Gulf War syndrome has had a number of positive and negative effects on the financial and other responsibilities of governments, corporations and institutions towards individuals, as well as on the individuals themselves. The social implication of viewing aging as a disease could be profound, though this classification is not yet widespread.

A condition may be considered to be a disease in some cultures or eras but not in others. Oppositional-defiant disorder^{[citation needed]}, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder^{[citation needed]}, and, increasingly, obesity^{[citation needed]}, are conditions considered to be diseases in the United States and Canada today, but were not so-considered decades ago and are not so-considered in some other countries^[who?]. Lepers were a group of afflicted individuals who were historically shunned and the term "leper" still evokes social stigma. Fear of disease can still be a widespread social phenomena, though not all diseases evoke extreme social stigma.

Sickness confers the social legitimization of certain benefits, such as illness benefits, work avoidance, and being looked after by others. In return, there is an obligation on the sick person to seek treatment and work to become well once more. As a comparison, consider pregnancy, which is not a state interpreted as disease or sickness by the individual. On the other hand, it is considered by the medical community as a condition requiring medical care and by society at large as a condition requiring one's staying at home from work.

taken from wikipedia.org

Medicine

Medicine is the practice of maintaining and restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of patients whose death it is the discipline's ultimate concern to avert. It has traditionally been regarded as both an art and a science: the term is derived from the Latin ars medicina meaning the art of healing.^[1][2] Whilst health science and biomedicine, clinical medicine, surgery and research are together the very bedrock of contemporary medicine, successful face-to-face relief of actual suffering resulting from disease and injury continues to require the intangible application of human feeling and compassion.

taken from wikipedia.org

Thalasemia

Thalassemia (British spelling, "thalassaemia") is an inherited autosomal recessive blood disease. In thalassemia, the genetic defect results in reduced rate of synthesis of one of the globin chains that make up hemoglobin. Reduced synthesis of one of the globin chains can cause the formation of abnormal haemoglobin molecules, and this in turn causes the anemia which is the characteristic presenting symptom of the thalassemias.

Thalassemia is a quantitative problem of too few globins synthesized, whereas sickle-cell disease (a haemoglobinopathy) is a qualitative problem of synthesis of an incorrectly functioning globin. Thalassemias usually result in under production of normal globin proteins, often through mutations in regulatory genes. Hemoglobinopathies imply structural abnormalities in the globin proteins themselves ^[1]. The two conditions may overlap, however, since some conditions which cause abnormalities in globin proteins (hemoglobinopathy) also affect their production (thalassemia). Thus, some thalassemias are hemoglobinopathies, but most are not. Either or both of these conditions may cause anemia.

The disease is particularly prevalent among Mediterranean peoples, and this geographical association was responsible for its naming: Thalassa (θάλασσα) is Greek for the sea, Haema (αίμα) is Greek for blood.The highest concentrations of the disease are found in Greece, including the Greek islands; in parts of Italy, in particular, the lower Po valley; in southern Italy; and in the Italian islands. Sicily, Sardinia (Italian islands), Corsica (French island) and Cyprus and Crete (Greek islands) are heavily affected in particular; the higher incidence in these islands likely is because of the higher inbreeding that occurs in isolated populations.

taken from wikipedia.org

ANEMIA

Anemia (AmE) or anæmia/anaemia (BrE), from the Greek (Ἀναιμία) (an-haîma) meaning "without blood," is defined as a qualitative or quantitative deficiency of hemoglobin, a molecule found inside red blood cells (RBCs). Since hemoglobin normally carries oxygen from the lungs to the tissues, anemia leads to hypoxia (lack of oxygen) in organs. Since all human cells depend on oxygen for survival, varying degrees of anemia can have a wide range of clinical consequences.

The three main classes of anemia include excessive blood loss (acutely such as a hemorrhage or chronically through low-volume loss), excessive blood cell destruction (hemolysis) or deficient red blood cell production (ineffective hematopoiesis).

Anemia is the most common disorder of the blood. There are several kinds of anemia, produced by a variety of underlying causes. Anemia can be classified in a variety of ways, based on the morphology of RBCs, underlying etiologic mechanisms, and discernible clinical spectra, to mention a few.

There are two major approaches of classifying anemias, the "kinetic" approach which involves evaluating production, destruction and loss^[1], and the "morphologic" approach which groups anemia by red blood cell size. The morphologic approach uses a quickly available and cheap lab test as its starting point (the MCV). On the other hand, focusing early on the question of production may allow the clinician more rapidly to expose cases where multiple causes of anemia coexist.

taken from wikipedia.org

Cancer

Cancer (medical term: malignant neoplasm) is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display the traits of uncontrolled growth (growth and division beyond the normal limits), invasion (intrusion on and destruction of adjacent tissues), and sometimes metastasis (spread to other locations in the body via lymph or blood). These three malignant properties of cancers differentiate them from benign tumors, which are self-limited, do not invade or metastasize. Most cancers form a tumor but some, like leukemia, do not.

Cancer may affect people at all ages, even fetuses, but risk for the more common varieties tends to increase with age.^[1] Cancer causes about 13% of all deaths.^[2] According to the American Cancer Society, 7.6 million people died from cancer in the world during 2007.^[3] Cancers can affect other animals besides humans, and plants, too.

Nearly all cancers are caused by abnormalities in the genetic material of the transformed cells. These abnormalities may be due to the effects of carcinogens, such as tobacco smoke, radiation, chemicals, or infectious agents. Other cancer-promoting genetic abnormalities may be randomly acquired through errors in DNA replication, or are inherited, and thus present in all cells from birth. Complex interactions between carcinogens and the host genome may explain why only some develop cancer after exposure to a known carcinogen. New aspects of the genetics of cancer pathogenesis, such as DNA methylation, and microRNAs are increasingly being recognized as important.

Genetic abnormalities found in cancer typically affect two general classes of genes. Cancer-promoting oncogenes are often activated in cancer cells, giving those cells new properties, such as hyperactive growth and division, protection against programmed cell death, loss of respect for normal tissue boundaries, and the ability to become established in diverse tissue environments. Tumor suppressor genes are often inactivated in cancer cells, resulting in the loss of normal functions in those cells, such as accurate DNA replication, control over the cell cycle, orientation and adhesion within tissues, and interaction with protective cells of the immune system.

taken from wikipedia.org

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS or Aids) is a set of symptoms and infections resulting from the damage to the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).^[1] This condition progressively reduces the effectiveness of the immune system and leaves individuals susceptible to opportunistic infections and tumors. HIV is transmitted through direct contact of a mucous membrane or the bloodstream with a bodily fluid containing HIV, such as blood, semen, vaginal fluid, preseminal fluid, and breast milk.^[2][3] This transmission can involve anal, vaginal or oral sex, blood transfusion, contaminated hypodermic needles, exchange between mother and baby during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding, or other exposure to one of the above bodily fluids.

AIDS is now a pandemic.^[4] In 2007, an estimated 33.2 million people lived with the disease worldwide, and it killed an estimated 2.1 million people, including 330,000 children.^[5] Over three-quarters of these deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa,^[5] retarding economic growth and destroying human capital.^[6] Most researchers believe that HIV originated in sub-Saharan Africa during the twentieth century.^[7] The disease was first identified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1981 and its cause identified by American and French scientists in the late 1980s.^[8]

Although treatments for AIDS and HIV can slow the course of the disease, there is currently no vaccine or cure. Antiretroviral treatment reduces both the mortality and the morbidity of HIV infection, but these drugs are expensive and routine access to antiretroviral medication is not available in all countries.^[9] Due to the difficulty in treating HIV infection, preventing infection is a key aim in controlling the AIDS epidemic, with health organizations promoting safe sex and needle-exchange programmes in attempts to slow the spread of the virus.

taken from wikipedia.org