What is inflammation

Inflammation is defined as the body’s reaction to a specific injury. The injury can be of any sort of damage to tissues (example: traumatic, heat, radiation, immunological, or infectious).

Upon such a reaction, the body primarily shows some peculiar signs, and those are referred to as the cardinal signs of inflammation.

There are four of such cardinal signs that are commonly seen with any sort of inflammation but there is also a fifth one.

The four cardinal signs of inflammation are:

• Redness
• Heat
• Swelling
• Pain

The fifth cardinal sign of inflammation usually comes into the picture when the injury is excessive. This fifth sign is the loss of function

Aside the cardinal signs of inflammation, the immediate response of the body to an injury which can be described as acute inflammation usually presents with three components and is referred to as the Lewis response.

The lewis response (in acute inflammation) include:

• Flush (central red line)
• Flare (more diffuse red area)
• Weal (Raised area)

This means that following an inflammation (right after a tissue injury), you are likely to see a narrow line of red on the skin along where it was scratched. This is then followed by a more diffuse reddening around the area of injury and that red area later becomes swollen.