The Role Of Biological Wound Cleaning In Modern Medicine
Aah, the French:
The idea of putting maggots into open flesh may sound repulsive, but such a therapy might be a quick way to clean wounds, a new study from France suggests.
via Maggots Clean Wounds Faster Than Surgeons | Wound Healing | LiveScience.
I kid. I think this is a good idea, and it’s natures’ way of saying ‘cleanup on aisle three’. Patients not infrequently will be brought to the ED with awful, non-healing wounds infested with maggots.
We typically kill them off, more because a) the staff is completely grossed out and b) if you’re living at home and have maggots in your wounds, let’s just say your personal hygiene is deeply suspect. Rank, in fact. Needs a decon level bad.
However, there is a legitimate role for biological wound cleaning; I have a WWII surgical book with a chapter in it on growing your own sterile maggots. It’s not an ER thing, but it’s yet another tool in the armamentarium of bad wounds.
*This blog post was originally published at GruntDoc*
