Wound Classification and Healing

A wound is classified by more than its appearance. The clinically useful description combines its cause, depth, contamination status, closure intention, and—when pressure is involved—the amount of tissue damage. Those labels guide what the nurse measures, which interventions are safe, and how urgently the patient needs evaluation. The nurse also separates the wound’s current appearance from its trajectory. A wound may contain healthy granulation and become smaller without changing its pressure-injury stage. Conversely, increasing pain, drainage, separation, or periwound inflammation can signal a complication even when the wound looks superficially closed.