Elder Law

Maggots are no Longer Cure for Festering Wounds

By Levin & Perconti

Putting flesh-eating maggots into open wounds has not been found to be helpful. The maggots do clean wounds more quickly than normal treatment, yet this does not lead to faster healing. A study shows that this ?so-called? larval therapy more painful. Maggots do have a long history in medicine. Recently they have been used to prevent dangerous infections like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureas (MRSA). The study recruited 267 patients with venuous leg ulcers and treated them either with maggots or hydrogel and found no significant difference in outcomes or cost. Maggots may seem to have advantages in some specialized areas, such as preparing patients for skin grafts, where faster wound cleaning means patients can be moved into surgery more swiftly. Larval therapy works because maggots eat only dead and rotting tissue, leaving a clean wound. These maggots do not burrow into healthy flesh, presumed to eat each other when they run out of food. This study will have an impact on the treatment of elderly patients. To read more about the study, please click the link.

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on March 27, 2009 (boomark / email).