Wound healing.

The majority of wounds encountered in the accident and emergency department are superficial in nature and a consequence of accidental trauma or the elective surgical incision of infected foci. The techniques of management of such cases have undergone few changes in recent years, and any advances of a practical or therapeutic nature have been comparatively modest. On the other hand, many major advances have occurred in our understanding of the factors involved in the basic pathophysiology of wound repair. This paper is a summary of our present concept of the process of repair in soft tissues.