Patient with maggots in head

[RD_Congo]

I saw this video of a patient with maggots in his head wound:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QJNxwvvS8Y

What could have caused this? Have you ever seen such a thing?

Could the human botfly do this? Is this maggot therapy?

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

Ick. That's the one. I don't care WHAT kind of fly it is, I was a bit sickened!

I don't gross out easily, but BUGS IN my patients' heads, well, that's gonna give me pause...

I'm a little afraid to ask this, but HOW does that fly lay eggs IN the patient's skin, let alone in the conjunctiva of the EYE?? I may not be the most sensitive creature, but I'd like to think I'd NOTICE a fly hanging out IN MY HAIR, or sitting on my EYE??

[dreamon]

Gross. :-(

I hope I can handle that if I ever see it.

[subtle]

on the up side, remember that until the pt gets proper wound care, the maggots are keeping the wound clean--they are only interested in necrotic tissue.

And did you know that if everybody stops talking and the room gets quiet...you can hear them eating?:chuckle They sound like Rice Krispies! (this from my Registered Vet Tech days)

[cmonkey]

My dad saw a biker with a boot full of maggots. Gangrene, I think, d/t poor perfusion from DM. Better to have it cleaned up than let it fester, I suppose, but what a surprise that must have been.

[becembrie]

I think I saw a show on National Geographic about maggots that are bred in a sterile lab environment. They are used for wound care. Like someone else said, they eat away the necrotic tissue and help with blood flow to the wound so it can heal. I don't know, it sounds feasible. Not much different than leeches. I sure wouldn't want them eating my tissue.

[angel4gramma]

about 6 months ago I had a pt that had a large wound on his leg. He was w/c bound and the student that was working with me came out after her assesment and said "he has maggots". I looked and saw maybe 3 so we called the MD to let him know. We used a tweezer to pull them out and I suggested she touch the wound all around and we found a total of 7. He (the pt didnt seemed suprised) he said he had the wound for awhile and was unable to move his leg on his own. But it wasnt as bad as that video.

[Valerie Salva, BSN, RN]

That video was too much. Where are this kid's parents? I would think that it would take some very serious neglect for this to happen; even in a third world country.

[RS0302]

We didnt use anything to scoop them out. The docs were aware of this and pretty much said the maggots were doing their job....even though the patient had them pretty much falling out of the wound onto his gown After about a week of TID wet to dry dressing changes, the maggots were gone anyway.

[Scrubby]

I heard a story from an old ER nurse about a diabetic patient with neuropathy, no sense of smell who came in with a really bad pressure sore on her sacral area, right down to the bone. The wound was full of maggots and she had to pick them all out.

We don't use maggot therapy at my hospital but some of the plastics patients who've had free flaps have leech therapy. I think it's sad that the leeches are killed after removal.

[intensity_too]

I'm a nursing student, and I can handle about anything . . . poop, pee, blood, vomit, but if a patient came in with maggots in a wound?? Yeah, I'd totally lose it!

[november17, ASN, RN]

One of the ER nurses I eat lunch with told me about a time when a patient came in for rectal bleeding and they found a bunch of maggots in the perineal area. She didn't say if there was broken skin or not. I didn't really ask for more info because it was gross and we were eating lunch.

[jenbet]

OMG!!!!!!!!:no::no::no: