[The informative aspects of the wound surface for determining vitality and wound age in skin cuts]

A histological study was carried out on skin cut wounds of guinea pigs at various time intervals during the first day after infliction of the cut. At the same time intervals, blood cells were obtained from the wound surface prints and analyzed cytologically and cytochemically. Histological examination showed that a central and peripheral zone formed in the wound area, demonstrating that necrobiotic and inflammatory processes were even occurring in the early hours after injury. However, changes in the quantitative relationships between individual kinds of cells were much more differentiated cytologically and reflected much more precisely. Functional and structural macrophage and lymphocyte changes in the wound region during inflammation were also revealed. In correlation, cytochemical analysis confirmed the concept concerning the development of the inflammatory process in the wound area, as enzyme-activity changes clearly detectable, which reflected the rapid, energetic, plastic cellular processes on the wound surface. Our combined results suggest that the wound surface is a zone of vital processes, but that it is not a "dead," "necrobiotic" area. The dynamics of the cellular alterations in the wound surface, reflecting the vital processes developing there, can be successfully used when the problem of vitality, especially the time lapse after the skin injury, is to be resolved.