We all surely heard about maggot therapy before, claiming to cure severe wounds. Now, maggots are making a comeback in mainstream medicine.
Rediscovery Of Maggot Therapy
The history of maggot therapy started in the ancient times written in the biblical texts to heal wounds. In World War I, it was accidentally rediscovered by a University Physician from Johns Hopkins University when he saw wounds infested with maggots. Instead of clearing the maggots away, he noticed that the wounds are healing better and did not become infected.
With his rediscovery, he cultured Lucilia sericata maggots in his lab to treat his patients with bone infections called osteomyelitis. He successfully cured the wounds but he also discovered at the same time that during the treatment, the wounds were infected with gangrene and tetanus because the maggots were not sterile.
After a long study about the maggot therapy, he finally found a way to safely sterilize the maggots with the use of hydrochloric acid, alcohol and mercuric chloride solution. This kind of treatment vanished over the years after the invention of many antibiotics drugs. But as evolution goes, several kinds of bacteria became drug-resistant and antibiotics are unable to treat some bacterial infections.
The evolving bacteria can generate biofilm barrier and colonies of bacteria also create a sugar coating to prevent antibiotics from penetrating. Because of this, some antibiotic treatments are useless.
Proven Results
According to Medicalxpress, Ed Maeyens, a dermatologist who studied for two decades the types of skin injuries, tried the maggot therapy out of desperation about patients who had several treatments that failed. Dr. Maeyens surprisingly said, "Doctors tend to believe they know more than maggots and can do a better job. But when I tried them, the maggots cleaned the wound beautifully. It was love at first bite."
A study in the U.K. compared bagged and loose maggots to an ointment called hydrogel that removes dead tissues by promoting the body's own enzymes. They found out in the published results in 2009 that all three ways of treatment worked in the same amount of time but maggots performed better in debriding dead tissues than with the use of hydrogel.
In the past few years, there were doctors who use maggot therapy to treat skin ulcers caused by type 2 diabetes. According to Medical Daily, a nurse, Michelle Marineau, used maggot therapy to his patient named James instead of resorting to amputation. They tried the maggot therapy and it worked perfectly.
In a 2011 French trial, researchers found the remarkable ability of maggots in debriding dead tissues compared to conventional treatment in chronic wounds. In the first week of treatment, the maggots performed better in removing dead tissues, although, at the end of treatment period, both have equal effective results.
Maggot therapy is now making its way back to the world of scientific medicine and a lot of experts are surely finding ways to utilize this incredible way of nature in treating wounds.
