General pathology is the term given to the set of basic processes and mechanisms that constitute the ways in which injury can occur, how the body responds to damage or infection and how normal physiology may malfunction to produce disease. The concepts in general pathology underpin the organ-specific diseases which are considered the province of systems-based pathology
Although general pathology is often described under a collection of headings that imply discrete entities, there is overlap between these entities and they should not be considered as self-contained, independent processes. For example, the response to infection overlaps with the processes of inflammation.
