BCEN CEN Practice Question

Purulent exudate together with localized erythema, warmth, swelling, increasing pain, and fever strongly indicate a bacterial infection of the wound itself. These findings fulfill the classic criteria for a localized wound infection that has progressed from simple contamination/colonization to overt infection and now requires systemic antibiotic therapy and wound care. Normal inflammatory healing would not produce purulent drainage or fever, and chronic osteomyelitis would be unlikely within 5 days of the initial injury.