Wound Care Community

How Wounds Heal: The 4 Main Phases of Wound Healing

John Maynard
Product Manager, Ostomy and Wound Care | Shield HealthCare
12/18/15  10:47 AM PST
Wound Healing

The body is a complex and remarkable machine, and the dynamic process of wound healing is a great example of how our body’s different systems, along with the proper wound care products, work together to repair and replace devitalized tissues. But how, exactly, does our body heal?

When the skin is injured, our body sets into motion an automatic series of events, often referred to as the “cascade of healing,” in order to repair the injured tissues. The cascade of healing is divided into these four overlapping phases: Hemostasis, Inflammatory, Proliferative, and Maturation.

Phase 1: Hemostasis Phase

Hemostasis, the first phase of healing, begins at the onset of injury, and the objective is to stop the bleeding. In this phase, the body activates its emergency repair system, the blood clotting system, and forms a dam to block the drainage. During this process, platelets come into contact with collagen, resulting in activation and aggregation. An enzyme called thrombin is at the center, and it initiates the formation of a fibrin mesh, which strengthens the platelet clumps into a stable clot.

Phase 2: Defensive/Inflammatory Phase

If Phase 1 is primarily about coagulation, the second phase, called the Defensive/Inflammatory Phase, focuses on destroying bacteria and removing debris—essentially preparing the wound bed for the growth of new tissue.

Stages of Healing_image

The 4 phases of wound healing. Healing begins with Hemostasis.

During Phase 2, a type of white blood cells called neutrophils enter the wound to destroy bacteria and remove debris. These cells often reach their peak population between 24 and 48 hours after injury, reducing greatly in number after three days. As the white blood cells leave, specialized cells called macrophages arrive to continue clearing debris. These cells also secrete growth factors and proteins that attract immune system cells to the wound to facilitate tissue repair. This phase often lasts four to six days and is often associated with edema, erythema (reddening of the skin), heat and pain.

Phase 3: Proliferative Phase

Once the wound is cleaned out, the wound enters Phase 3, the Proliferative Phase, where the focus is to fill and cover the wound.

The Proliferative phase features three distinct stages: 1) filling the wound; 2) contraction of the wound margins; and 3) covering the wound (epithelialization).

During the first stage, shiny, deep red granulation tissue fills the wound bed with connective tissue, and new blood vessels are formed. During contraction, the wound margins contract and pull toward the center of the wound. In the third stage, epithelial cells arise from the wound bed or margins and begin to migrate across the wound bed in leapfrog fashion until the wound is covered with epithelium. The Proliferative phase often lasts anywhere from four to 24 days.

Phase 4: Maturation Phase

During the Maturation phase, the new tissue slowly gains strength and flexibility. Here, collagen fibers reorganize, the tissue remodels and matures and there is an overall increase in tensile strength (though maximum strength is limited to 80% of the pre-injured strength). The Maturation phase varies greatly from wound to wound, often lasting anywhere from 21 days to two years.

The healing process is remarkable and complex, and it is also susceptible to interruption due to local and systemic factors, including moisture, infection, and maceration (local); and age, nutritional status, body type (systemic). When the right healing environment is established, the body works in wondrous ways to heal and replace devitalized tissue.


With reporting by Chad Collins

For more information, see related articles and resources here:

 

Comments

28 Comments

  1. Posted April 6, 2017 at 4:24 pm PDT

    This information is very helpful to me thank a lot .

  2. Barbara
    Posted April 12, 2017 at 8:30 pm PDT

    Great info…healing phases!

  3. Elizabeth Prentice
    Posted April 22, 2017 at 6:14 am PDT

    That was informative l like that it shows each stage of healing.

  4. sarala
    Posted May 8, 2017 at 1:08 am PDT

    Its really helpfull us

  5. mirembe sharon
    Posted August 13, 2017 at 3:38 am PDT

    its nice and helpful. thanks

  6. Posted September 22, 2017 at 1:42 pm PDT

    […] Only God can heal. Only God can reconcile. Only God can do the work that we so often want to hurry in and do. We want to fix it or make it all better as soon as possible. But the thing about wounds is…. I don’t know a thing about wounds but I have been hanging out with a lot of medical professionals recently and the thing they tell me about wounds is that sometimes when people come into the hospital they’re too far gone. Sometimes there’s nothing they can do as medical professionals to make it all better. They still try. They still tend to the wound. (*Here’s a chart I found on the internet about the stages of a wound healing). […]

  7. Majzoub
    Posted January 6, 2018 at 9:45 am PST

    Useful and interesting

    As expected many technical terms

    Thanks for the explanation

    Saturday 06 January 2018

  8. Posted May 12, 2018 at 2:46 am PDT

    inapendeza sana kazi hii nzur ya vutia kweli

  9. Posted July 24, 2018 at 7:33 pm PDT

    […] “The healing process is remarkable and complex, and it is also susceptible to interruption due to local and systemic factors…When the right healing environment is established, the body works in wondrous ways to heal and [revitalize itself],” say the medical professionals. […]

  10. Branham E.
    Posted December 8, 2018 at 7:41 am PST

    This is what I’ve been looking for! Very informative, precise and well articulated. ASANTE SANA

  11. Posted January 3, 2019 at 6:08 pm PST

    […] There are four main stages or types of wound healing. What are the four stages of wound healing? This is a basic stages of wound healing timeline: […]

  12. Posted January 23, 2019 at 11:36 pm PST

    The information is really helpful and well explained. Thank you

  13. Posted February 3, 2019 at 9:00 pm PST

    […] There are four main stages or types of wound healing. What are the four stages of wound healing? This is a basic stages of wound healing timeline: […]

  14. Posted February 10, 2019 at 8:10 pm PST

    […] part of our classroom time was spent talking about the wound healing process – from inflammatory response and new tissue proliferation to maturation, remodeling, and […]

  15. Posted April 10, 2019 at 3:15 am PDT

    […] There are 4 important levels or forms of wound therapeutic. What are the 4 levels of wound therapeutic? This can be a primary levels of wound therapeutic timeline: […]

  16. Posted April 18, 2019 at 11:33 am PDT

    […] There are four main stages or types of wound healing. What are the four stages of wound healing? This is a basic stages of wound healing timeline: […]

  17. Posted April 23, 2019 at 7:28 am PDT

    […] forms during the healing process and closes and protects the sites of injuries and surgical wounds. One healthcare company puts it like this, “the body works in wondrous ways to heal and replace devitalized […]

  18. Posted June 16, 2019 at 4:35 am PDT

    Of course it’s helpful to us that we are going to be doctors in some few years to come… thanks

  19. Posted September 3, 2019 at 6:23 am PDT

    Thank you very much for this highly informative article. It’s exactly what I was looking for!

  20. Morrison N.
    Posted August 12, 2020 at 8:14 pm PDT

    This article was very educative, fo both learner’s and any other person generally.
    Am taking this opportunity to appreciate it highly…

  21. Maryam
    Posted September 4, 2020 at 4:18 am PDT

    Thanks for the article,it was very educative

  22. Patrick K.
    Posted October 11, 2020 at 3:59 am PDT

    This information has been so much helpful to me, it had all the necessary information I needed. Am very much pleased to have visited this website. Thanks very much for helping me with the rightful information.

  23. Dr Shaikh Ershadul Haque
    Posted November 21, 2020 at 9:26 am PST

    Information regarding wound healing is really very helpful and need more information regarding auto immune system and topical application impact on wound healing.

  24. Posted January 1, 2021 at 7:25 am PST

    The above information is very much beneficial,,,, for I got what I wanted

  25. Sinbe cheno
    Posted March 23, 2021 at 8:54 pm PDT

    Thank you very much it is a good information . Thank you

  26. Notirah
    Posted April 7, 2021 at 4:37 am PDT

    thank you quiet educative information

  27. Posted September 30, 2021 at 3:24 am PDT

    Some truly interesting details you have written.Aided me a lot, just what I
    was searching for :D.

  28. Posted October 6, 2021 at 2:08 am PDT

    Just a smiling visitor here to share the love
    (:, btw great style.

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