Abscess or infection

[Sworder]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abscess

Read that.

Abscesses are generally local infections. But there are sterile abscesses that are caused by non-pathogenic foreign objects as well (like injecting a grain of sand that was sterile).

So the grain of sand creates fluid retention although it is sterile? I have always wondered about this sterile abscess as it seems to be an oxymoron. I believe it to be a myth

[Bonaparte]

So the grain of sand creates fluid retention although it is sterile? I have always wondered about this sterile abscess as it seems to be an oxymoron. I believe it to be a myth

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedic...n+site+abscess

"Sterile abscesses are sometimes a milder form of the same process caused not by germs but by nonliving irritants such as drugs. If an injected drug like penicillin is not absorbed, it stays where it was injected and may cause enough irritation to generate a sterile abscess—sterile because there is no infection involved. Sterile abscesses are quite likely to turn into hard, solid lumps as they scar, rather than remaining pockets of pus."

Your immune cells detect the foreign object (through its lack of surface markers) and wall it off, eventually burying it in scar tissue so that it cannot interfere with or infect the surrounding tissue.