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

LACERATED WOUNDS

• These are tears or splits produced by blows with blunt objects and missiles, violent falls on sharp and hard projecting surfaces, by machinery and railway accidents, by the wheels of a vehicle, by the claws, teeth or horns of animals and by projecting nails. These wounds do not generally correspond in shape or size to the object producing them. Their edges are torn, jagged, irregular and swollen or contused. The tissues are torn and the skin around the seat of injury is ecchymosed and the underlying bones are likely to be fractured, while the internal organs may be injured.
• Foreign bodies such as earth, grease, machine oil, cinder, hair, fibres etc. are frequently found in the wounds which are, therefore, predisposed to infection.
• When produced by a blunt weapon such as a club (lathi), crowbar, stone, etc., a lacerated wound is usually accompanied by a considerable amount of bruising of the surrounding and underlying tissues, and has everted and irregular edges. When a heavy weight like a wheel of heavy or a truck passes over any of the extremities it tears the skin and crushes the muscles and soft parts beneath it, releasing considerable blood fat in them. Crush syndrome or fat embolism may occasionally follow.
• The direction of shelving of the margins of a lacerated wound indicates the direction of the blow applied to cause the wound.
• Hemorrhage in lacerated wounds is, as a rule, not extensive owing to the - that the arteries are not cut evenly but are torn across irregularly so as facilitate clotting of the blood. In lacerated wounds of the head, the oral arteries often spurt as freely and forcefully as when cut cleanly.