Maggots may clean wounds faster than surgery

Next time you seriously wound yourself, ask for maggots! Then don't look! tongue:

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-f ... rgery.html
French study suggests maggots may clean wounds faster than surgery
December 21, 2011 by Bob Yirka

Image: National Institutes of Health

To accomplish this feat they secrete a substance into the dead tissue that helps to break it down first. When introduced into injured human flesh, the maggots perform the same trick, eating dead flesh while leaving healthy flesh alone, though not necessarily in the same fashion.

This one study suggests that more research needs to be done regarding the use of maggots in healing wounds, because despite the ick factor; people should have access to the best possible treatment. In the United States, for example, despite the fact that the FDA gave approval for use of maggot therapy back in 2004, little testing, research or actual procedures have been carried out and some patients, such as those with diabetes or those that cannot abide anesthesia, have likely suffered for it.

More information: Maggot Therapy for Wound Debridement, Arch Dermatol. Published online December 19, 2011.
doi:10.1001/archdermatol.2011.1895