"Historically, maggots were used for medicinal purposes by ancient cultures such as the Mayan Indians of Central America and the Ngemba tribe of New South Wales, Australia. However, MDT was not commonly used in the western hemisphere until the mid-nineteenth century. In the United States, J.F. Zacharias used MDT during the Civil War, drawing on the experience of European military surgeons."*One of those military surgeons was Baron Dominique-Jean Larrey, Napoleon's chief surgeon, who, after the Egyptian campaign, wrote about the beneficial role of maggots in wound debridement (the removal of damaged or dead tissue).
It would seem that maggots have been making a comeback in the world of medicine, via "MDT" or Maggot Debridement Therapy: "Medicinal larvae (larvae of the green blowfly Phaenicia sericata, also known as Lucilia sericata) can be placed in a properly prepared chronic wound to facilitate debridement. This is commonly referred to as maggot debridement therapy (MDT)." MDT is now being used in cases of lower extremity wounds that prove unresponsive to other means of treatment. In my perusal of the medical literature it seems to be used often to treat wounds resulting from Diabetes.
"MDT has been shown to be effective in aiding the treatment of intractable diabetic foot ulcerations, which frequently result in hospitalization; amputation is required in 15% to 25% of these cases in the industrialized world." In one study testing maggots against conventional therapy in cases of diabetic foot and wound ulcers, the maggots proved superior. "After 5 weeks of therapy, conventionally treated wounds were still covered with necrotic tissue over 33% of their surface, whereas after only 4 weeks of therapy maggot-treated wounds were completely debrided. Maggot therapy was also associated with hastened growth of granulation tissue and greater wound healing rates."**Seemingly disgusting yet so helpful!
* I am quoting from an article in Advances in Skin and Wound Care 16(2) 2003 pp. 99-102.
** This is from an abstract of a clinical trial reported in Diabetes Care. 26(2):446-51, 2003
