First aid

A US Navy corpsman gives first aid to an injured Iraqi citizen

First aid is the provision of initial care for an illness or injury. It is usually performed by non-expert, but trained personnel to a sick or injured person until definitive medical treatment can be accessed. Certain self-limiting illnesses or minor injuries may not require further medical care past the first aid intervention. It generally consists of a series of simple and in some cases, potentially life-saving techniques that an individual can be trained to perform with minimal equipment. While first aid can also be performed on all animals, the term generally refers to care of human patients.

Open wounds

Even a small open wound can result in infection if it is not properly treated.
Open wounds are extremely painful to victims and intimidating to those who must treat them. Before attempting treatment, it is helpful to know what kind of open wound you're dealing with in order to avoid aggravating the wound or treating it ineffectively. There are at least five kinds of open wounds: abrasions, incisions, lacerations, punctures and avulsions. A closed wound is one which affects the tissue underneath the skin, such as a bruise or blood blister.

Kinds of wounds
Abrasions An abrasions results from scraping (abrading) the skin and thereby damaging it. Bleeding in an abrasion is usually limited to oozing of blood from ruptured small veins and capillaries. However, there is a danger of contamination and infection, because of dirt and bacteria may have been ground into the broken tissues. Abrasions commonly result from falls or the handing of rough objects. Example are skinned knees, rope burns (which are actually abrasions, not burns), and shallow multiple scratches. Incisions Incised wounds, or cuts in-body tissues are commonly caused by knives, metal edges, broken glass, or other sharp objects commonly cause incised wounds, or cuts, in-body tissues. The degree of bleeding depends on the depth and

extent of a cut. Deep cuts may involve blood vessels and may cause extensive bleeding. They may also damage muscle, tendons, and nerves. Lacerations Lacerations are jagged, irregular, or blunt breaks or tears in the soft tissues. Bleeding may be rapid and extensive. The destruction of tissue is greater in Lacerations than in cuts. The deep contamination of wounds that result from accidents involving moving parts of machinery increases the chances of later infection. Punctures Puncture wounds are produced by bullets and pointed objects, such as pins, nails, and splinters. External bleeding is usually minor, but the puncturing object may penetrate deeply into the body and this damage organs and soft tissues and sever internal bleeding. Because puncture wounds generally are not flushed out by external bleeding, they are more likely than some other wounds to become infected. Tetanus organisms and other harmful bacteria that grow rapidly deep within body tissues by a penetrating object. Avulsions Avulsion wounds involve the forcible separation or tearing of tissue from the victims body. Avulsions are commonly caused by animal bites and accidents involving motor vehicle, heavy machinery, guns and explosives. They are usually followed immediately by a heavy bleeding, a detached finger, toe, nose tip, ear, or, in rare cases, whole limb may be successfully attached to a victims body by a surgeon if the severed part is sent with the victim to the hospital

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