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maggots for cleaning!

#1 User is offline   JeepinIan 

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  Posted 03 August 2004 - 08:52 AM

Although this sounds kinda weird to me, I do believe it would work better than some surgeries.

Quote

Maggots make medical comeback
Clinics try the low-tech treatment for stubborn wounds

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The Associated Press
Updated: 3:49 p.m. ET Aug. 2, 2004

WASHINGTON - Think of these wriggly little creatures not as, well, gross, but as miniature surgeons: Maggots are making a medical comeback, cleaning out wounds that just won't heal.
Wound-care clinics around the country are giving maggots a try on some of their sickest patients after high-tech treatments fail.
It's a therapy quietly championed since the early 1990s by a California physician who's earned the nickname Dr. Maggot. But Dr. Ronald Sherman's maggots are getting more attention since, in January, they became the first live animals to win Food and Drug Administration approval, as a medical device to clean out wounds.
A medical device? They remove the dead tissue that impedes healing "mechanically," FDA determined. It's called chewing.
But maggots do more than that, says Sherman, who raises the tiny, worm-like fly larvae in a laboratory at the University of California, Irvine. His research shows that in the mere two to three days they live in a wound, maggots also produce substances that kill bacteria and stimulate growth of healthy tissue.
Still, "it takes work to convince people" — including hospital administrators — that "maggots do work very well," said Dr. Robert Kirsner, who directs the University of Miami Cedars Wound Center.
"They'll probably be easier to use now that they're FDA-approved, and we'll talk about it more and think about it more," Kirsner said. He estimates he uses maggots in about one in 50 patients where conventional therapy alone isn't enough.
A good year for critters
This has been quite a year for worm-like critters. In June, FDA also gave its seal of approval to leeches, those bloodsuckers that help plastic surgeons save severed body parts by removing pooled blood and restoring circulation. And in the spring, University of Iowa researchers reported early evidence that drinking whipworm eggs, which causes a temporary, harmless infection, might soothe inflammatory bowel disease by diverting the overactive immune reaction that causes it.
There's a little more yuck factor with maggots. Most people know of them from TV crime dramas, where infestations of bodies help determine time of death.
Actually, maggots' medicinal qualities have long been known. Civil War surgeons noted that soldiers whose wounds harbored maggots seemed to fare better. In the 1930s, a Johns Hopkins University surgeon's research sparked routine maggot therapy, until antibiotics came along a decade later.
Today, despite precise surgical techniques to cut out dying tissue, artificial skin and other high-tech treatments, hard-to-heal wounds remain a huge problem. Diabetic foot ulcers alone strike about 600,000 people annually and lead to thousands of amputations.
It's not unusual to spend two years and $30,000 treating one, says Dr. David G. Armstrong, a Chicago specialist who first tried maggot therapy in frustration about seven years ago and says he's now used it on several hundred patients.
Drop maggots into the wound and cover with a special mesh to keep them in place. Two to three days later, after the maggots have eaten their fill, lift them off and dispose.
Wound size determines how many maggots, and how many cycles of therapy, are needed. It typically costs a few hundred dollars, says Armstrong, of the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science.
Success stories
One of Sherman's studies found 80 percent of maggot-treated wounds had all the dead tissue removed, compared with 48 percent of wounds surgically debrided. Armstrong is about to publish research that suggests maggot-treated patients also spend fewer days on antibiotics.
Patients say it's not that hard to accept. Pamela Mitchell of Akron, Ohio, begged to try maggots when surgeons wanted to amputate her left foot, where infection in an inch deep, 2-inch-wide diabetic ulcer had penetrated the bone. It took 10 cycles of larvae, but she healed completely.
How did they feel? On day 2, when the maggots were fat, "I could feel them moving, because they were ready to come out," she recalls. But, "if you're faced with amputation or the maggots, I think most people would try the maggots."

Ian Stewart

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#2 User is offline   Rollbar 

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Posted 03 August 2004 - 04:44 PM

This has been around & discovered since the Civil War, I saw a documentary on it.

They had wounded inside the on the tables getting ready for surgery & the ones laying out side (day's now) contracted maggots & they lived & so did the limbs where they were wounded. The ones inside on the tables had there legs etc cut off due to infection & all they had to do was let them stay outside & ease the pain & the maggots would take care of'em.

So maggots are a good thing in some cases.

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#3 User is offline   Jim B 

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  Posted 03 August 2004 - 05:57 PM

Dr. Rollbar, :doctor:

It is a shame that we still have some people that would rather loose a limb over the thought of having to feel maggots on their skin. This is probably why we have trouble from hospitals accepting this among other things. :updown:

The FDA and big business drug companies don't help at all since they would be loosing money. There are also many plants healing naturally that have been held back for witchcrafting. If you want something approved by the FDA within 7 years you need a big wallet. This is one of the reasons so many people with last hope seek treatment outside US to avoid the BS of the FDA so called approved drugs. :jawdrop:

BS, FDA, REG... all these initials can drive you nuts... I say bring on the maggots! :2thumup:
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#4 User is offline   TombRaiderTim 

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Posted 03 August 2004 - 07:01 PM

And don' forget that all of the major medical schools are funded by the drug companies. So thats what the doctors learn.
Tim

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#5 User is offline   Rambo 

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Posted 03 August 2004 - 07:33 PM

if i go to ocala, i will bring a jar full of maggots for you and Dr. rollbar...

:lroll:
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#6 User is offline   Rollbar 

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Posted 03 August 2004 - 07:40 PM

Yum, yum. :sneak: :lroll:

Take two everymorning :1thumb: b-4 breakfest & two @ lunch to combat a upset stomach. :sneak: :lroll: :shock:

Dr. RollBar

P.S. I agree w/you Jim :2thumup:
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#7 User is offline   sempergumbyTJ 

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Posted 03 August 2004 - 09:20 PM

Got Maggots! :1thumb: :2thumup:
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