VMD 511: Animal Welfare, Ethics and Jurisprudence (2+0)

INCISED WOUNDS

• An incised wound is produced by a sharp cutting object such as a knife, razor, sword, gandasa (chopper), axe, or any object which has a sharp, cutting edge. An incised wound is always broader than the edge of the weapon causing it owing to the retraction of the divided tissues. It is somewhat spindle­-shaped and gaping, its superficial extent being greater than its depth.
• This gaping is greater in deep wounds when the muscle fibres have been cut transversely or obliquely. Its edges are smooth, even, clean-cut, well­ defined and usually everted. The edges may be inverted if a thin layer of muscular fibre is closely united to the skin, as in the scrotum. They may be irregular in cases where the skin is loose or the cutting edge of the weapon is blunt or heavy. Length of the incised wound has no relation to the length of the cutting edge of the weapon. A curved weapon, such as a scythe or sickle, first produces a stab or puncture and then an incised wound; and sometimes the intervening skin may be left intact.
• While describing an incised wound it is always necessary to note its direction. At commencement the wound is deep, and it gradually becomes shallower and tails off towards the end, but no direction is noticeable if the weapon has not been drawn while inflicting the wound.
• Haemorrhage in the case of incised wounds is usually much more than in other wounds, as a clean-cut blood vessel bleeds considerably more, and bleeding may be so severe as to cause death, especially if a main artery has been cut.