Maggot Therapy Useful for Treatment

MIAMI - A new study has supported the medical use of maggots to clean wounds by removing dead and unhealthy tissue.

This study revealed that maggot therapy, which is done by placing maggots on meat that is open, can be a quick way to clean the wound. This idea may sound disgusting, but the results showed that this procedure can be useful for certain cases.

The researchers said the therapy might be useful in patients with diabetes who require speed control to deal with their wounds, or for patients yagn operation can not be given anesthesia. So proclaimed InternationalBusinessTimes, Friday (12/23/2011).

Medical use of maggots have been approved in 2004, by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. According to Dr. Robert Kirsner, a dermatologist at the University of Miami School of Medicine who was not involved in the study, only a minority of patients with wounds that can not be disembuhkanlah who received treatment.

"There are many factors to it," Kirsner said. "Patients need to be very strong psychologically," he said, given there is little risk in such treatment methods.

The study involved 100 men with injuries to the lower leg, the other half received maggot therapy and the other half received surgery. Patients and doctors alike to evaluate the injuries were not told what type of therapy used by patients.

Maggot secretes enzymes that dissolve dead tissue, but does not damage healthy tissue. After 8 days, the percentage of dead tissue in wounds of patients with maggot therapy is approximately 54.5 percent. Whereas in patients who received surgery there are approximately 66.5 percent. But after 15 days and 30 days, the number of dead tissue in the wound was almost equal.