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Anyone For Maggot Therapy?

by positivenegative
10 replies
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Apparently we've used this as a medical treatment in the US and UK since 2004. They kept that quiet then.

My wife's just fainted.

Antibiotics? Try Flesh Eating Maggots
  • Profile picture of the author HeySal
    That's why flies are important to the environment besides being food for other life forms. They clean up dead organic matter such as feces and cadavers. This therapy sounds pretty gross, but it's actually a very good way to clean bacteria out of wounds. No side effects -- other than the severe nausea you might experience from knowing you have maggots crawling around the wound area.

    I could do it if my life depended, but, yeah, the thought is extremely troubling.
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  • Profile picture of the author ForumGuru
    Banned
    It's not as unknown or as unheard of you might think. Chicago Hope, House M.D. and others have shown maggot episodes, and Russel Crow got MDT on his shoulder wound in the movie Gladiator. Back in the 1930's it was a go-to treatment.


    In the 1930's, maggot debridement therapy was a routine treatment for helping bone and soft-tissue infections. Maggot treatment went out of style with new antibiotics, but the treatment is coming back in style. On June 28, 2004, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared for the first time the commercial marketing of leaches for medicinal purposes.

    Maggots In Wounds: Are Medical Maggots The Best Way To Clean A Wound? [VIDEO]
    The Medical Maggots™ brand of medicinal maggots are cleared by the FDA for marketing under the following indications: "for debriding chronic wounds such as pressure ulcers, venous stasis ulcers, neuropathic foot ulcers and non-healing traumatic or post surgical wounds."
    Maggots have been known for centuries to help heal wounds. Military surgeons noted that soldiers whose wounds became infested with maggots had better outcomes than those not infested. William Baer, while at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, may have been the first in the Northern Hemisphere to have intentionally applied larvae to wounds in order to induce wound healing. During the late 1920's, he identified specific species, raised them in the laboratory, and used their larvae to treat several children with osteomyelitis and soft tissue infections. He presented his findings at a surgical conference in 1929. Two years later, after treating 98 children, his findings were published posthumously.

    MDT was successfully and routinely performed by thousands of physicians throughout the 1930’s
    The results of those controlled comparative studies, and the many studies and reports that followed, indicate that MDT is still useful today as a safe and effective treatment tool for some types of wounds. Those studies also demonstrated that there is no reason to withhold MDT until all other modalities have been exhausted, nor use it only as a "last resort." Indeed, while published accounts of "pre-amputation MDT" show a limb salvage rate of over 40%, the success of MDT when used earlier in the course of treatment (say, as a 2nd or 3rd or 4th line treatment) is even more dramatic.
    Today, any licensed physician in the U.S. can prescribe maggot therapy. World-wide, approximately 50,000 treatments were applied to wounds in 2011.

    http://www.monarchlabs.com/mdt
    Cheers

    -don
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    • Profile picture of the author thunderbird
      Originally Posted by ForumGuru View Post

      It's not as unknown or as unheard of you might think. Chicago Hope, House M.D. and others have shown maggot episodes, and Russel Crow got MDT on his shoulder wound in the movie Gladiator. Back in the 1930's it was a go-to treatment.

      Maggots 3.AVI - YouTube


      Cheers

      -don
      I knew about maggot therapy myself. I'd actually opt for it over some antibiotic regimens since it has fewer side-effects.
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  • Profile picture of the author seasoned
    Yeah, this hasn't been secret. If there is too much dead tissue, things can get NASTY. They USED to take huge chunks of flesh out, or even saw off LIMBS! It is said that that is why they called the doctor on star trek BONES. Some doctors, especially in the 18th-19th centuries were called SAW BONES because they did it SO often. Failure to get the dead tissue below a certain point leads to gangrene, and it will slowly destroy the body if it doesn't kill you first.

    In the early 20th century, they understood things better, had surgical techniques, and antibiotics, so it got to be LESS of a problem. Still, with some diseases and toxins, and advanced progression, they are not enough. Maggots are a good simple way to take care of it. Supposedly, they raise STERILE maggots, for just this purpose. Of course, the maggots do this for FOOD, so you have to remove all of them before they pupate. Supposedly maggots won't touch good tissue, by the way!

    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author Rick Rodd
    I feel icky with blood letting leeches, how much more with maggots? I would just wait for nanobots technology. I feel safer with sentient microchips, thank you.
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    • Profile picture of the author thunderbird
      Originally Posted by Rick Rodd View Post

      I feel icky with blood letting leeches, how much more with maggots? I would just wait for nanobots technology. I feel safer with sentient microchips, thank you.
      I guess my childhood of lifting up rocks and looking at bugs somehow spared me of most bug-related "ick" feelings. I did have such a reaction facing the kind of assassin bug that causes chagas disease (Texas is a hotspot for it nowadays). For me, it lies in knowing whether or not a bug is dangerous. If a bug is being medically applied and helps treat a problem, that's fine with me. An open sore going untreated would be what causes me to go "ick."
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    • Profile picture of the author seasoned
      Originally Posted by Rick Rodd View Post

      I feel icky with blood letting leeches, how much more with maggots? I would just wait for nanobots technology. I feel safer with sentient microchips, thank you.
      They still use LEECHES also! To restart blood flow, etc...

      Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author Rick Rodd
    Just sayin', maggots aren't cute. If they look like gummi worms and "rainbowy" I'd reconsider.


    Though I got to hand it to them, those would really be a good help for countries not receiving enough medical assistance. Grassroots, indeed. Kudos to those med practitioners using this method.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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    Originally Posted by seasoned View Post

    They still use LEECHES also!
    Very much so. This was used in some places in the UK for the last few decades of the 20th Century, (and at various much earlier times, too). And in many other countries. It's quite a well-established medical treatment.

    .
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  • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
    I suppose I could get used to it. I'd prefer nanobots because they could be programmed to leave when their work is done. I'd rather read Michael Kors spam though.
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