Maggot Therapy and Leeches!
Dec. 12th, 2005 08:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fitfoolWhen I saw the words 'maggot therapy' float by, I assumed it was an abandoned medical treatment like bloodletting. But idle curiousity can be quickly satisfied. A few minutes of Googling later, I found that not only do some doctors introduce maggots to sterile dressings covering up wounds, others have also brought the lowly leech back into the halls of medicine.
The maggots are used to eat away dead tissue in serious wounds. They also seem to eat away some bacteria that might otherwise cause infections and some speculate that the maggots even promote faster healing. The pages I looked at make it seem like this is being used more in Europe than in the U. S.
Meanwhile, though bloodletting was a flop, leeches are now found to be useful in surgeries, particularly in plastic and reconstructive surgery. They keep the blood flowing in areas where there's some congestion. So they keep an adequate blood supply in that area and save those parts of the flesh from going necrotic due to a lack of blood.
Maggots:
http://www.larve.com/faq/
http://www.ucihs.uci.edu/com/pathology/sherman/home_pg.htm#Clinical%20Practice%20of%20Maggot%20Therapy
http://www.ucihs.uci.edu/com/pathology/sherman/faq.htm#2
Leeches:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3858087.stm
I love the idea that modern medicine has figured out ways to make use of even maggots and leeches.
The maggots are used to eat away dead tissue in serious wounds. They also seem to eat away some bacteria that might otherwise cause infections and some speculate that the maggots even promote faster healing. The pages I looked at make it seem like this is being used more in Europe than in the U. S.
Meanwhile, though bloodletting was a flop, leeches are now found to be useful in surgeries, particularly in plastic and reconstructive surgery. They keep the blood flowing in areas where there's some congestion. So they keep an adequate blood supply in that area and save those parts of the flesh from going necrotic due to a lack of blood.
Maggots:
http://www.larve.com/faq/
http://www.ucihs.uci.edu/com/pathology/sherman/home_pg.htm#Clinical%20Practice%20of%20Maggot%20Therapy
http://www.ucihs.uci.edu/com/pathology/sherman/faq.htm#2
Leeches:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3858087.stm
I love the idea that modern medicine has figured out ways to make use of even maggots and leeches.
