Secondary healing
The secondary healing of wounds (Latin: sanatio per secundam intentionem = ps) means the healing of defects with broad scarring .
Secondary wound healing is predominantly observed
- for gaping or defective wounds, if
- the patient refuses medical treatment or
- the six hour period for primary wound closure has passed, or
- infection prohibits primary wound closure
- after infection of a primarily closed wound
- after opening abscess cavities
- in other fistulous processes with tissue breakdown
- after tooth extractions
The secondary healing leads to a scarred replacement of the tissue gap via the detour of the granulation tissue . This is offset by the desirable primary healing that can occur after surgical wound closure, for example through surgical sutures. This is the only way to expect minimal scarring.
The result ps as well as the antonym pp , which stands for “primary healing”, are recorded in wound statistics . Under comparable conditions, i. H. same operation and comparable patients, the relative number of secondarily healed wounds is a negative indicator of the quality of surgical operations .
