Creepy Crawlies Crawling Back

Leeches and maggots...according to two separate reports last month these two old favourites in alternative medicine could soon be "worming" their way back into common use.

A German study reported in the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases found that leeches can relieve pain and inflammation in osteo-arthritic knees. Analgesic, anaesthetic and histamine-like compounds in the saliva of leeches were believed to provide rapid pain relief with effects which lasted up to four weeks.

Meanwhile, the journal Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation reports that maggots are increasingly being used for "wound debridement" - removing dirt and dead or damaged tissue from the surface of serious wounds. Colonies of disinfected larvae were applied to 21 adult patients with serious wounds - most of which had not responded to more than 6 months of conventional treatment. The unusual dressings were applied to the wounds and left for between 24 and 72 hours.

11 of the treated wounds healed completely within 6 months of treatment.

The authors of the report claim maggot debridement is "safe and effective" as well as reducing the cost of long-term hospitalisation or surgery.

Maggot therapy was widely used as recently as the early 20th century. Interest is certainly returning and nearly 1,000 specialists worldwide now offer the treatment.

Thursday, 1 November 2001