Why are some wounds that are healing itchy, some not?
In: Biology
Not sure about a definite answer but some factors might play a role:
Some wounds heal via the primary pathway, for example a clean knife cut, where the two borders of the separated skin lie close to each other, the sometimes even touching. These two sides can simply glue back together leaving no or minimal scars. Most likely without itching.
Now take a big flat wound from skitting your ass on the floor after a bike accident. The skin above the affected area is gone. Now comes the secondary pathway, where the body produces material to fill the hole that can’t easily be closed and then contracts this material via inserted fibers to bring the borders of the wound closer together. This often happens under a scab. The contraction irritates the injured nerves in the wound and causes the itching.
If you consider that itching is transmitted by the same nerves that transmit pain, the size and innervation of the affected area play a big role as well.
Bacterial infection can also play a role as some bacterial toxins can also irritated injured and sensitive nerves causing an itch.
seems very plausible, thank you 🙂
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