LONDON (Reuters) - British doctors will be able to prescribe maggots to NHS patients with infected wounds from Friday onwards, a hospital official said.
He said the National Health Service had realized maggots were a cheaper and more beneficial way of treating wounds than using conventional medicine.
Patients would be able to treat themselves at home and avoid the possibility of picking up a hospital infection.
Maggots have been used for centuries to rid wounds of decaying flesh, but after the discovery of antibiotics their use went into decline.
"People didn't like the thought of creepy-crawlies on their skin," said Tony Fowler, customer services manager at the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend, Wales.
"But now there is a renewed interest because of the problems caused by the over-use of antibiotics, and the NHS has seen the cost-effectiveness of maggots."
Research at the Princess of Wales Hospital confirmed that placing sterile maggots on wounds could make them heal faster than conventional medicine.
The creatures devour dead, infected tissue and kill off bacteria that could block the healing process without damaging the surrounding tissue, since they cannot ingest healthy flesh.
Previously, patients could obtain sterile maggots from certain hospitals and research centers.
We use leeches as well. They work wonderfully! We had a 10 year old girl who had severed her hand in a farming accident. We put leeches on her hand numerous times a day. We started a poster board and she would name the leeches. 'Superman' was the pig of the group.
I won't forget the time I went to remove a leech from her hand and he wasn't there. I followed the bloody~slimy trail out her room and around the corner then lost him :roll Okay, explain that one to housekeeping :rotfl: We let her keep 'Superman' to take back and show her classmates.
"Yes i seemed to have misplaced my leech, he answers to the name of Superman. Please call me if you hear from him....." LOL
I haven't worked w/therapeutic maggots, but I have w/leeches....they do wonders to help heal wounds! I have to admit that I would choose leeches over maggots though.
I used maggots 30 yrs ago in WI...no not WW1...some kind of wound that wasen't responding to antibiotic RX...anyway it may have been ugly but the wound was literally "cleaned" out by those little buggars and the wound actually
I saw maggots in a wound center. This guy had a diabetic ulcer on his foot. When the maggots went in they were fairly small, but boy when they came out they were huge!!!!! :rotfl:
Back in the good old days ,1963, when I was a student, a diabetic patient had guillotine above knee amputations of both legs.Due ti the type of surgery there was no way for these wounds to heal and of course they became severely infected. Enter the maggots!!! over time the areas were clean and the surgeons proceeded with whatever type of grafting done in those times. I do remember seeing this fellow out in the community rolling around in his wheelchair the picture of health. Sometimes everything old is new again.
I saw it on a TV show once. Apparently they eat only the necrotic stuff and leave healthy tissue alone, are very selective in this aspect and they are grown under controlled conditions to be sterile. I can just see myself suggesting a maggot tx on the NP board
Specializes in RETIRED Cath Lab/Cardiology/Radiology.
Bring in some good articles/literature on it and they'd have no room for (sound) argument against it. Emotionally, though, as with some of us, some of the NP board may have trouble "stomaching" the concept. :)
I would not, could not, participate in this type of therapy. I know it is a wonderful thing, but I get the willies when it comes to creepy crawlies:chair: . I practically ran out of my room one night when watching trauma life in the E.R. and this woman came in with her son for an infection in her foot. When they looked at it, maggots where inside (chills). I am too afraid to look on the ground when it rans because I know that some where there are worms near by (super chills and itchy). They use leeches at a local hospital that I use to work for. One day, the nurse was putting some on a post-op patient and she dropped it and it got away. All that week I was verrrrry careful where I walked, sat, and placed my hands.
I've got more maggot stories if you are up to it....here's one
A little old lady who stood about 4 foot 6. Broke her leg several YEARS before I met her. Her leg was casted and she was sent home with crutches and instructions to return to the cast clinic for followup...you guessed it, she never came back. Jump forward about 2 years. Her and her husband are investigated by social services due to the gross neglect of the yard and they find a very smelly, demented couple. One with a two year old cast on her leg. She was admitted and while taking the cast off (not nice experience, I can tell you), packed into her cast was newspapers, plastic bags etc which were nicely containing her whole army of maggots that had been very busy keeping her heel ulcer nice and clean. Make a long story short, she was not infected, the cast was smelly but her wound was clean. She rehabed enough to walk again and was sent to long term care.
Okay, explain that one to housekeeping :rotfl: We let her keep 'Superman' to take back and show her classmates.
Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN
12,126 Posts
Where's my loofah, i need a shower with some Lysol.
(insert barf smiley here)