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Maggot therapy including patient update

Linda Frank of North Syracuse undergoes maggot therapy to treat a foot wound she suffered due to diabetes. Maggot therapy is when a doctor puts maggots on a wound and lets the larvae eat away the dead tissue.

Follow Up

Linda Frank, of North Syracuse, who went through over 20 treatments of maggot therapy to treat a heel wound and bone infection as a result of diabetes. In late 2006, doctors told Frank she was going to have her left foot amputated because of the wound, but she researched about maggot therapy on the Internet and asked Dr. Louis Bonavita, of CNY Family Care in East Syracuse, for help. Maggot therapy is where live maggots are applied to a wound and are left there for 1 or 2 days. During that time, the larvae eat away the dead tissue but leave the heathy ones alone.

Early Use

Written records have documented that maggots have been used since antiquity as a wound treatment. There are reports of the successful use of maggots for wound healing by Maya Indians and Aboriginal tribes in Australia. There also have been reports of the use of maggot treatment in Renaissance times. During warfare, many military physicians observed that soldiers whose wounds had become colonized with maggots experienced significantly less morbidity and mortality than soldiers whose wounds had not become colonized. These physicians included Napoleon’s surgeon general, Baron Dominique Larrey, who reported during France's Egyptian campaign in Syria, 1829, that certain species of fly destroyed only dead tissue and had a positive effect on wound healing.

Dr. Joseph Jones, a ranking Confederate medical officer during the American Civil War, is quoted as follows, "I have frequently seen neglected wounds ... filled with maggots ... as far as my experience extends, these worms only destroy dead tissues, and do not injure specifically the well parts." The first therapeutic use of maggots is credited to a second Confederate medical officer Dr. J.F. Zacharias, who reported during the American Civil War that, "Maggots ... in a single day would clean a wound much better than any agents we had at our command ... I am sure I saved many lives by their use. " He recorded a high survival rate in patients he treated with maggots.

During World War I, Dr. William S. Baer, an orthopedic surgeon, recognized on the battlefield the efficacy of maggot colonization for healing wounds. He observed one soldier left for several days on the battlefield who had sustained compound fractures of the femur and large flesh wounds of the abdomen and scrotum. When the soldier arrived at the hospital, he had no signs of fever despite the serious nature of his injuries and his prolonged exposure to the elements without food or water. When his clothes were removed, it was seen that "thousands and thousands of maggots filled the entire wounded area." To Dr. Baer's surprise, when these maggots were removed "there was practically no bare bone to be seen and the internal structure of the wounded bone as well as the surrounding parts was entirely covered with most beautiful pink tissue that one could imagine." This case took place at a time when the death rate for compound fractures of the femur was about 75-80%.

Syracuse, New York, United States

Added: Apr-9-2009 by komakazzi
Views: 53734 | Comments: 71 | Votes: 15

Tags: maggots, medicine, therepy, diabetes, larvae, syracuse, post-standard