LegendaryLife Blog

Larval (Maggot) Wound Therapy, also known as Maggot Debridement Therapy (MDT), involves using maggots to clean a wound. Maggots aren’t these evil little worms that eat people alive, they actually benefit the victim (and themselves) by feeding off dead flesh. Let me repeat, they only eat what is dead, they have no interest in live tissues… hence their incredible value at cleaning up infections.

History of Maggot Therapy

Maggot therapy isn’t anything new, flies have been directly applying this therapy on just about every living thing since the dawn of time, what is new, is we finally realized the benefits. Sometimes humans are slow to realize that what may seem nauseating to some, is actually mother natures way of helping us get over some battle damage. Using maggots as wound vacuum cleaners all started with anecdotal evidence by field surgeons during war that soldiers who had maggot infestations in their wounds seemed to recover quicker and better then those them. In fact, when antibacterial medicines and other modern techniques fail, maggot infections can help those who otherwise would have had to suffer extreme medical procedures to save their lives.

What are maggots?

Maggots are the larva stage of the regular house fly and is the second of four life cycle stages (after egg, before pupa). Once the fly deposits its eggs, the maggot emerges within a day and it eats until it’s ready to enter the third life cycle stage. After the maggot has eaten it’s fill, it then proceeds to a moist area away from the food source to enter the pupa state, which then leads to the emergence of the fly.

The bad maggots

Although maggots are only interested in dead flesh, they sometimes get under the skin of animals and even humans, changing from a beneficial insect to one that is parasitic. These type of infestations, known as myiasis, are usually caused by direct interactions with maggot infestations, such as putting your hand in rotting garbage. Flies don’t normally deposit eggs on living things unless they have an open sore or wound.

Summary

This is a rather graphic video, so I have posted it at the bottom of this summary:

• Medicinal maggots are our best friends, they are used for improvised debridement purposes in both field and clinical settings
• the periphery of a wound is covered with a tincture of benzoil to both clean up and make the application of a hydro colloid dressing easier
• sterile nylon chiffon mesh is then applied over the wound, trapping the medicinal maggots and the dressing they reside upon in place
• sterile medicinal maggots are removed from a sterile lab container using a tongue depressor and put in the middle of a dressing
• chiffon (with dressing) is then applied directly to the wound with the maggots place in them middle of the dressing
• maggots tend to work their way out from a wound rather quickly
• waterproof neoprene tape is then applied around the entire wound (except the center of the wound to allow aeration), holding the entire dressing assembly together

The Bottom Line

Maggots are our friends, we should be so lucky to get a wound infested with them, as it could save your life if you are far away from medical facilities.

Buzzvia

http://www.ucihs.uci.edu/com/pathology/sherman/home_pg.htm