What are the wound repair intentions?

• A. Acute, Chronic, Recurrent
• B. Primary, Secondary, Tertiary
• C. Clean, Contaminated, Dirty
• D. Primary and Secondary only

Answer: (B)

Wound repair intentions describe how a wound is managed to heal, based on how the wound is closed and how tissue is allowed to regenerate. There are three main types:

Primary healing (first-intention) occurs when wound edges are clean and brought together closely, usually with sutures or staples. This approach minimizes tissue loss, heals quickly, and leaves a small scar with a low risk of infection.

Secondary healing happens when edges cannot be approximated or there is significant tissue loss. The wound is left open to heal from the bottom up through granulation tissue, contraction, and eventual epithelialization. This takes longer and tends to result in more scarring and a higher infection risk.

Tertiary healing, or delayed primary closure, involves initially leaving the wound open to allow for cleaning and protection from infection. After a short period, once the tissue is free of infection and the wound bed is ready, it is closed surgically. This combines the safety of letting infection risk decrease with the efficiency of surgical closure, often producing a moderate scar.

The other options don’t describe repair intent: acute/chronic/recurrent refer to timing or recurrence of wounds, not how they’re managed for healing; clean/contaminated/dirty describe contamination, not the method of closure; primary and secondary only omit the delayed closure concept.