Wound healing--a study on circaseptan reactive periodicity

The course of swelling after maxillo-facial surgery was investigated by measuring the distance from the tragus to the pogonium. The post-surgical swelling does not diminish continuously, but decreases in a circaseptan periodic mode. The reactive periodicity is preferentially induced not by the injury, but by the surgical treatment. Identical surgical treatment induces a lower level of swelling under local anaesthesia. In contrast to 'biological' remedies, 'chemical' antiphlogistic agents, derived from antirheumatic drugs, reduce the extension of swelling, but they also flatten out the increase of swelling around day 7 after surgery.