Using Maggots In Hospitals For Wound Care

It may sound gruesome, but it turns out that maggots are remarkably efficient at cleaning up infected wounds by eating dead tissue and killing off bacteria that could block the healing process.

Maggot medicine, in fact, has a long history. Napoleon's battle surgeon wrote of the healing powers of maggots 200 years ago, and they were put to work during the American Civil War and in the trenches in World War One.

With the arrival of modern antibiotics in the 1940s, however, maggots were consigned to the medical dustbin.

In a bid to prove the case for maggots conclusively, Dr Pauline Raynor of the University of York is recruiting 600 patients across Britain for the world's biggest ever maggot trial.

Her three-year study is being keenly watched by doctors and wound care specialists around the globe. One third of patients -- selected at random -- will be treated with loose maggots, held in place by a dressing; one third with maggots contained in a gauze bag; and one third with hydrogel, a standard wound-cleaning therapy.

So far, most patients have been enthusiastic -- once they are reassured that the sterilized greenfly larvae will not start burrowing into healthy flesh.

"These maggots are only interested in dead and unhealthy tissue. Rather than strip a leg, they will start eating each other instead," Raynor said.

The maggots are tiny when applied to the wound but can grow to half a centimeter after they have eaten their fill. In the long run, maggots could save patients a lot of pain -- and governments a lot of money -- if wounds heal faster. Conventional treatment may take months, while maggot therapy normally involves just two or three sessions, each of 3 days.

Dr Kosta Mumcuoglu of the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, who has been practicing maggot therapy since 1996, says international interest in the treatment is growing fast. "It's becoming much more acceptable. It is changing from an alternative treatment to a conventional method," he said. Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved maggots as a "medical device" and Britain has also made them available on prescription within the National Health Service, demonstrating how maggots are entering the mainstream, he said.

Dr. Mumcuglu estimates there are now 2,000 practitioners of maggot therapy and more than 20,000 people have been treated since the mid-1990s, mainly in Britain, Germany, the United States and Israel.

That has created a niche business in breeding surgical grade fly larvae. Produced from sterilized eggs, a batch of maggots for treating one wound sells for around 80 to 100 pounds ($153-$192).
News Release UK