Definition and Nature of Inflammation 【http://www.pathology.fun/ | 病理学教研室】
When living tissue are injured, a series of changes, which may last for hours or days, or weeks, occurs in and around the area of injury. This response to injury is known as inflammation, the term being derived from the Latin inflamer meaning to burn.
当机体组织受损时，一类可延续数小时、数天及数周的反应，将于损伤部位发生，此即炎症反应。该术语来源于拉丁文“Inflamer”,意为灼伤。
The injury is abnormal, but the body's reaction, inflammation, is a normal, if complex, physiological reaction, the only one possible in the circumstances of that particular injury. Its purpose is to localize and eliminate the causative agent, to limit tissue injury and then to restore the tissue to normality or as close to normality as possible. This reactive nature of inflammation was first recognized by John Hunt (1794), who, after his studies of war wounds, concluded: 'Inflammation is itself not to be considered as a disease, but as a salutary operation consequent either to some violence or some disease.
损伤是异常的，而机体的炎症反应却是正常的，即使炎症反应过程十分复杂，在此情形下，导致该生理反应发生的唯一可能也应为损伤所致。其目的在于集中并消灭病原体，限制组织损伤，以便于完全或近可能完全地修复组织。炎症反应的性质于1794年被琼.哈特首次认识到,他在研究战伤后认为：炎症本身并非疾病，而应被视为一种对抗暴力与疾病从而有利于机体康复的反应。
Many different types of injury may evoke inflammation. They may be physical agents, chemical substances, hypersensitivity reaction, microbial infections, and necrosis of tissue and so on.
导致炎性损伤的因素可以多种多样，例如：物理性因子、化学性物质、过敏性反应、微生物感染、已坏死组织等。
The reaction in the first few hours after injury is stereotyped and widely different kinds of injury cause a similar initial response-the acute inflammatory reaction. The terms acute and chronic refer to the duration of the response. Acute inflammation lasts for days or few weeks; chronic inflammation persists for weeks, months or even years.
广泛的不同类型的损伤因素，在导致机体受损后数小时内，均导致类同的急性炎症反应。急、慢炎症病程各不相同，急性炎症反应的病程可持续数天或数周，慢性炎症反应的病程则可持续数周、数月乃至数年。
The inflammatory response is usually beneficial, indeed it is essential in combating most infections and intimating the harmful effects of many toxic agents. However it is not always of benefit. There are many situations when destruction of tissue or other untoward effects are due not to the damaging agent but to one or other aspect of the body's response to injury. For example in acute inflammation of the larynx, there may be sufficient inflammatory swelling to obstruct the airway and cause death from asphyxia. Inflammation is best considered not as a single process but as a collection of distinct processes, each of which may have evolved for defense against injury, but each of which has also potentially deleterious effects.
通常而言，机体的炎症反应对于机体有益。它能在对抗感染及限制毒性损害方面发挥重要作用。然而，它并非百益而无一害。在许多情况下，机体组织受到损害或产生某些有害反应，并不是由于损伤因子所致，而是由于机体的抗损伤反应导致的某些不利方面所致，例如：急性喉炎中，喉头由于炎性水肿膨大，阻塞气道而导致窒息死亡。关于炎症过程正确的观点应该是：不应该仅仅将其视为单一反应过程，而且应该视为多阶段的复合过程，在此过程的每一阶段，炎症反应不但具有抗损伤作用，而且同时可能具有潜在危害的影响。
