Mind Blowing! Did You Know that Maggots Could Heal Wounds? + VIDEO

That’s just gross you will say! Those nasty, squiggly, hideous worms!! But you will surprised by how beneficial they are to the health industry.

Take the case of Mr Shane Swansea who was bitten by a copper head snake, the snake’s fang that had broken up inside began an infection in his heel bone. Initially the infection had become very serious, had eaten into the bone, and had spread up his leg. At one stage, the doctors were considering amputation, until he met Dr Ronald Sherman who treated him using maggot therapy.

Below are Mr Swansea’s experience:

Maggots do not hurt, they don’t bite, and they are not dirty. In order to handle them, you have to put on sterilised gloves because they are so clean.
Being eaten by maggots, you might occasionally feel slight movement, but basically you do not know they are there. 

A Brief History

The use of maggots in wound dressing is called Maggot Therapy. And Maggot therapy was originally used by physicians in the 16th century (1501-1600), and more recently at the battlefields of World War 1.

Scientific studies on the medicinal use of maggots began in the 1920s. These studies revealed that maggots helped clean dirty and necrotic wounds by feeding on the dead tissue, while leaving the healthy tissue unaffected. During the 1930s, thousands of surgeons used maggots to effectively treat chronic or infected wounds such as abscesses, burns and even bone infections. But the introduction of penicillin in the 1940s saw the sharp decline in the use of medicinal maggots.

What is Maggot Therapy?

Maggot Therapy, also called Maggot Debridement Therapy is the intentional application of dressing of live fly larvae inside a wound to help heal the wound. This form of treatment is pretty recent in most countries. For example, it was only in 2004 that the United States Food and Drug Administration sanctioned their use after 20 years of clinical trials.

Maggots are the eggs of flies, or basically immature flies. These eggs are put into chemical disinfectants before they are transferred into sterile bottles where the maggots hatch, and it takes two days before they are ready to use.

How Does It Work?

Maggot therapy heals wounds by three primary actions:

1.  Cleaning of the dead infected tissue by liquefying it
2.  Disinfecting wounds by killing germs
3. Stimulating wounds healing by causing healthy tissues to grow back

While maggot therapy in a controlled hospital environment can be a useful method of treating difficult wounds, patients SHOULD NOT try this at home. Uncontrolled maggots in large numbers can lead to infestation, infection and other major complications.

So you learnt it here first, maggots are not as bad and icky as you thought (well, the sterile ones!)

Watch the video