Baby fly in the ointment?

Maggots as Good as Gel in Leg Ulcer Treatments

The use of maggots to treat leg ulcers is similar to standard hydrogel therapy in terms of health benefits and costs, according to British researchers.

Debridement (removal of dead tissue from the ulcer surface) helps promote healing and is a common part of treatment for leg ulcers, chronic wounds most often caused by diseased veins. While a hydrogel is commonly used for debridement, it's been suggested the maggots (larval therapy) debride wounds more quickly, stimulate healing and reduce infection.

Compared to hydrogel, larval therapy significantly reduced the time to debridement, but there was little difference in time to ulcer healing, health-related quality of life or levels of bacteria.

Maggots no wonder cure for festering wounds

Putting flesh-eating maggots into open wounds may not be such a great idea after all.

They do clean wounds more quickly than normal treatment but this does not lead to faster healing, results of the world's first controlled clinical trial of maggot medicine showed on Friday.

Some patients also found so-called larval therapy more painful, according to the study in the British Medical Journal.

They found no significant difference in outcomes or cost.