Three Phases of Wound Healing

Featuring Dr. Jugpal Arneja, MD, MBA, FAAP, FACS, FRCS
,Three Phases of Wound Healing

Duration: 1 minute, 51 seconds

There’s three phases of any wounds healing.

The first phase is the inflammatory phase and this lasts a few days. This is followed by the proliferative phase where the body’s throwing down a lot of scar tissue and that might be why you notice your scar becoming quite red.

This is followed by a remodeling phase which can last up to 9 to 12 months. And in the remodeling phase the scar will begin to flatten, the redness will start coming out of it, and finally it should become a nice, fine white line.

In the first phase of wound healing, it generally only takes a few days but at that time the wound is very fragile so you want to protect the wound. Your medical professional might have placed some stitches, and during that interval you want to protect the wound with respect to any trauma or even getting it wet or contaminated.

The second phase of wound healing is the proliferative phase. And in the proliferative phase you might notice your scar becoming quite red. It’s during this time where avoidance to the sun is very imperative.

And certain strategies that your medical professional might advise you to perform is scar massage during this interval because the scar can become quite dry and during this phase of wound healing, adding moisture back to the scar is really important.

In phase three we call that the remodeling phase. And your scar will begin to become less red and flatten down. The only thing that’s important during the remodeling phase is if there is persistent inflammation in the scar it could become quite red and quite thick and this could be a sign of abnormal scarring like a hypertrophic scar or a keloid scar.

If patients have any questions about any of the three phases of wound healing or any problems during any of these phases, it’s important to seek medical attention from your primary care physician or your general practitioner. They might ultimately refer you to a plastic surgeon or dermatologist for further evaluation of the scar.

Presenter: Dr. Jugpal Arneja, Plastic Surgeon, Vancouver, BC

Local Practitioners: Plastic Surgeon