CJE Medical-Surgical (MS) II Practice Test

The first step in the inflammatory phase is hemostasis: blood vessels constrict to limit bleeding, platelets aggregate to form a plug, and a fibrin-containing clot is deposited to stabilize the wound. This clot not only stops bleeding but also serves as a provisional matrix and sources growth factors that recruit neutrophils to begin cleaning debris and pathogens. Epithelial migration across the wound bed is not part of the inflammatory phase—it occurs later, during the proliferative phase, when re-epithelialization, granulation tissue formation, angiogenesis, and collagen deposition help restore tissue integrity. So the initial action is vasoconstriction with platelet plug formation and fibrin deposition to establish hemostasis.