Maggot Treatment Successful In Treating Diabetes Wounds

Mon, 26 Sep 2011

A new study has found that maggots may be more effective at treating wounds in people with diabetes than traditional tools – scalpels and enzymatic agents.

The latter are used in a process called debidement, which is designed to effectively debride infected or deal tissue to allow bad wounds to heal and ensure they do not worsen and lead to loss of limb.

Dr Lawrence Eron, from Kaiser Hospital and the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, and colleague treated 37 type 2 diabetes patients suffering from artery disease that had resulted in bad circulation in the limbs and troublesome refractory wounds that were up to five years old.

The scientists applied 50 to 100 maggots to the diabetic wounds and left them on for two days, before replacing them with new ones. This process was repeated an average of five times.

Twenty-one of the patients were successfully treated for infection, with complete removal of dead tissue and formation of strong granulation tissue in the wounds . The maggot debridement approach also managed to heal five wounds that had been infected with the superbug MRSA.

Dr Eron explained that maggots secrete a substance that liquefies the dead tissue before they ingest it and clean the wound. It is thought that other substances contained in the secretions also allow for the development of robust granulation tissue that forms during the healing of the wound.

"Maggot debridement treatment is overwhelmingly effective. After just one treatment these wounds start looking better," Dr Eron commented.

Asked how he persuades patients to undergo maggot debridement treatment, he added: " A lot of patients might be somewhat wary of having insects placed into their wounds, so we explain how it works and what possible problems might occur."

The findings were presented last week at the 51st Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) in Chicago.

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