Last night my daughter and I (the 19-year-old, not the little one!) were perusing one of my new medical textbooks and looking at lovely photographs of all kinds of diseased and otherwise compromised flesh and organs. You know, one of those mother-daughter bonding moments!
After looking at the book we continued to talk and she started showing me pictures of different things she had seen on the internet...bot flies, heart worms...and this prompted her to bring up the medical use of maggots.
Medical use of maggots, I say?
Yes mom, look, says she...
And she showed me. Apparently the medical employment of maggots is a very real method of treating wounds that will not heal. I had no idea!
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Originally Posted by wikipedia
Maggot therapy (also known as maggot debridement therapy (MDT), larval therapy, larva therapy, larvae therapy, biodebridement or biosurgery) is a type of biotherapy involving the intentional introduction by a health care practitioner of live, disinfected maggots (fly larvae) raised in special facilities into the non-healing skin and soft tissue wound(s) of a human or other animal for the purpose of selectively cleaning out only the necrotic tissue within a wound (debridement) in order to promote wound healing.
In maggot therapy, disinfected fly larvae are applied to the wound for 2 days within special dressings to keep them from migrating. Maggots used in maggot therapy are highly selective about what they consume i.e. they focus exclusively on dead tissue and will not eat living flesh. The medical literature identifies three primary actions of medicinal maggots on wounds: they clean the wounds by dissolving dead and infected tissue ("debridement"); they disinfect the wound (kill bacteria); and they speed the rate of healing. Maggots never reproduce in the wound. Larvae of all species are immature, and can not reproduce.
In January, 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began regulating medicinal maggots, and allowed the production and marketing of one particular strain of Phaenicia sericata larvae marketed under the brand name Medical Maggots. In February, 2004, the British National Health Service (NHS) permitted its doctors to prescribe maggot therapy. Medical Maggots represent the first living organism ever allowed by the FDA for production and marketing as a prescription medical device. Reimbursement for maggot therapy is available in the U.S. and other countries.
In 1995, only a handful of doctors in 4 countries were using maggot therapy. Since that time, worldwide use of maggot therapy has increased significantly. Today, any physician in the U.S. and many other countries can prescribe maggot therapy. Over 4,000 therapists are using maggot therapy in 20 countries. Approximately 50,000 treatments were applied to wounds in the year 2006. There are over 800 health care centers in the U.S. that have utilized maggot therapy.
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Maggot therapy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Apparently there is nothing new about this treatment, only that I've not heard of it before.
Lots more here:
Monarch Labs Medical Maggots for Maggot Therapy wound care treatment
Then there's this, newer, news:
Multi-tasking Maggots In Superbug Showdown
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Scientists at Swansea University (Wales, UK) have discovered a new type of antibiotic in maggot secretions that can tackle up to 12 different strains of MRSA, as well as E. coli and C. difficile. The research was funded by leading charity Action Medical Research, with support from the Rosetrees Trust.
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So my daughter, who is not at all squeamish, is so repulsed by this idea that she immediately swore that she would never allow a doctor to treat her with maggots. But when questioned further she's not so sure...what if she had a large, painful wound that wasn't healing with any other treatment?...she couldn't really answer that.
here is a description of the treatment:
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Originally Posted by wikipedia
The application of maggot dressings is simple: maggots are contained in a cage-like dressing over the wound for 2 days. The maggots may be allowed to move freely within that cage, with the wound floor acting as the bottom of the cage; or the maggots may be contained within a sealed pouch, placed on top of the wound. The dressing must be kept air permeable because maggots require oxygen to live. When maggots are satiated, they become substantially larger and seek to leave the site of a wound. Complete removal of maggots from a wound is easily accomplished. Multiple two day courses of maggot therapy may be administered depending on the severity of the non-healing wound.
Maggots never reproduce in the wound. Larvae of all species are immature, and can not reproduce.
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How about you? Would you allow a doctor to treat you with maggots?
Or, better yet, have you or anyone you've ever known been treated with them?
Myself, I think I would. Absolutely. Yes.
I find the topic fascinating in many ways. Not only as a simple piece of sensationalistic information, but also in the irony that can be found in the idea that maggots, traditionally associated with germs and filth, can be useful in making us healthy and clean.