Maggots clean up

Sydney Morning Herald ^ | January 3, 2004

[presidio9]

Maggots are being used as a treatment at a state-of-the-art Scottish hospital.

The larvae have been reintroduced at the £184 million ($436 million) New Edinburgh Royal Infirmary to treat wounds on patients with diabetes.

The maggots, used in medicine until the 20th century, eat dead flesh on dirty, infected lesions, leaving a clean wound that begins to heal, doctors said.

Matthew Young, a diabetes consultant, pioneered the renewed use of maggots at the diabetic foot clinic he runs at the hospital. "There are many ways to clean up dirty, infected wounds in situations where either surgery would be too difficult or too painful without an anaesthetic or too risky," he said. "They are often used in patients with either bad blood or who are older or frail to provide a more gentle and quicker way of cleaning up a wound."

A Welsh-based company realised the potential maggots still had as an alternative to traditional treatments and began marketing them as a clinical treatment. The firm delivers sterile maggots to hospitals within 24 hours at 50 per treatment. Patients are brought into hospital to have the maggots applied before being sent home for three days while the larvae perform their treatment. Most patients require two or three treatments before their wound is healed.

[egarvue]

This is just so sick to think about...and yet it works. I just hope my doctor doesn't start taking any more of these "old techniques" to heart. "Now, we're just going to apply a few leeches here, son, to get rid of the Bad Humours in your blood...."

[Williams]

I remember a story by someone who had this treatment and the maggots were escaping from their bandage. Nothing wrong with the approach, but does anyone know how long it takes the maggots to turn into flies? Also, don't they eliminate into the wound as they eat?

[Johnny_Cipher]

Figures. Somebody saw "Gladiator" one too many times.

[SpaceBar]

It's funny how these necrotic tissue feeding maggot stories surface periodically as if it's something new. People get grossed out and then the story goes away until next time when there is a slow news day. Been going on a long time. Get over it folks.

[China Clipper]

This is just so sick to think about...and yet it works. I just hope my doctor doesn't start taking any more of these "old techniques" to heart. "Now, we're just going to apply a few leeches here, son, to get rid of the Bad Humours in your blood...."

Too late mate.. They are already using leeches!

Yes, its true. Many hand surgeons use leeches post surgery. They actually allow the surgeon to maintain circulation in the surgeries which require re-attachment of fingers and smaller body parts after traumatic amputations. Apparently the leeches secrete a substance which minimises blood clotting.

Strange but true!

[MineralMan]

Yawn. Not news. They've been using maggots to debride wounds for a long, long time. They save lots of lives and help prevent lots of amputations.

Someone should clue this hospital in.

[PoorMuttly]

Allowing them to clean-up a wound was one of the ways our boys survived imprisonment as POWs in Vietnam.

[jwh_Denver]

Apparently the leeches secrete a substance which minimises blood clotting.

What they do is suck the blood out, good or bad blood. This would help minimize clotting.

[Central_Floridian]

My neighbor told me her about her uncle who was a GI in WWII and was captured by the Nazis. He was badly wounded in the leg by an artillery round and was denied medical treatment. He put maggots into his wound and believed that was what saved his leg or perhaps his life.

[freedumb2003]

Based on the headline, I thought this was about some sort of Dean-Kerry split on a key voting group.

[dljordan]

Or worse, bring in the barber to bleed you.

[SAMWolf]

DARN! I thought this was gonna be about the Clinton's

[elli1]

Just read about maggots in frostbite wounds earlier today. A couple of the climbers on the French team that made the first ascent on Annapurna got maggots in their wounds on the long delayed return back to France.

From True Summit by David Roberts:

...Surrounded by doctors, the patient lay still as nurses unwrapped the dressings on his feet. The head physician offered soothing words: ''Maurice, be brave while I change this last bit of gauze.''

Suddenly Herzog heard a chorus of cries. Doctors and nurses alike jerked back involuntarily. ''They're jumping!'' someone screamed. ''They're jumping!''

The maggots that had infested Herzog's feet in Nepal had gorged on his dead flesh. Now, each one as thick as a pencil, at the moment of release from their prison of gauze, they leapt into the air in every direction....

[5050 no line]

Check out such diverse matters as 'Grizzly Adams' and Spec Forces ad hoc medicine. Maggots have been used for years. These are now specially bred and sterile for the purpose described. No problem, once you get past the image! There is a balance in nature that we do our best to upset! Spiders web poultice anyone?

[duckman]

I'll read this later, just had mini rice with tomato gravy.

[Inyokern]

You are all on cleanup detail, maggots!