Medical Use Of Maggots.

A comment in the Peanut Butter Cup thread got me thinking about this. I remember in Anatomy learning about how maggots could be used for diff medical reasons, and so.. well here's a thread on it: *The picture's are pretty heavy, i would steer clear of those if you have a weak stomach.

Info: Maggot therapy, also known as biosurgery, larval therapy, or maggot debridement therapy, is a carefully controlled, artificially induced benign myiasis, in which the medical practitioner aims to take advantage of the ability of maggots to break down and ingest infected or necrotic tissue.

History:The founder of modern maggot therapy is William Baer (1872-1931), Clinical Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Maryland6.

He described how, during the First World War, he had treated two wounded soldiers who had remained overlooked on the battlefield for seven days having sustained compound fractures of the femur and large flesh wounds of the abdomen and scrotum. On arrival at the hospital they showed no sign of fever or septicaemia despite the very serious nature of their injuries and their prolonged exposure to the elements without food or water. On removal of their clothing Baer found `thousands and thousands of maggots that filled the entire wounded area.' To Baer's surprise, when these were removed `there was practically no bare bone to be seen and the internal structure of the wounded bone as well as the surrounding parts was entirely covered with most beautiful pink granulation tissue that one could imagine'. This at a time when the mortality rate for compound fractures of the femur was about 75-80%. Support for Baer's observations was provided by Crile & Martin9 who also reported that soldiers whose wounds were infested with maggots did far better than their wounded comrades who wounds were not similarly afflicted.

Commercial Production: In the absence of any equally effective alternative for the treatment of osteomyelitis or infected soft tissue injuries, the use of maggots spread quickly during the 1930's. In the USA, Lucilia sericata larvae were produced by Lederle Corporation15 and sold for $5 per 1000 (now equivalent to about $100).

Application: The number of maggots applied to a wound depends upon a number of factors, including the age and size of the maggot, the amount of necrotic tissue present, and most importantly, the size of the wound. Originally a maximum of about 10 maggots per cm2 was suggest as recommended by Robinson7 but now it has been recognized that in most instances, provided the surrounding skin is well protected, the maximum number of maggots used is probably not critical.

It is more cost effective to use a large number of maggots for a short period of time than a small number for an extended period. The BRU has produced a simple calculator to help practitioners decide how many pots of maggots they require for different sized wounds containing varying amounts of slough.

On to the pictures:(Second Warning)

http://www.larve.com/Images/images_legulce...avity_wound.jpg

http://www.larve.com/Images/images_others/pot_of_larve.jpg'> http://www.larve.com/Images/images_legulce..._amputation.jpg

is the second one a vagina?

once a couple years ago teacher told the class a story about when he was a nurse. a wheelchair bound woman was also an alcoholic. she had a wheelchair accident when she was drunk, and broke her leg. it got infected, i think because she didn't get to the doctor in time. he said she was really toxic from the infection, and taking as much antibiotics as possible. the nurse and a doctor discussed what to do about it, and the nurse came up with the idea to use maggots. they ordered some maggots, and the first batch died a few hours after because of the toxicity. they put another batch on, and the woman died. then i said, "so the moral of the story is don't drink and drive", he chuckled and said yes.

That's gross.

They still use this method in the modern medical world? What happens when the maggots turn into flies?

Edit: I got called a Maggot by some crazy black woman who was leaning out her window screaming at me after I pulled in front of her car when she was speeding.

Originally posted by fermentor666

They still use this method in the modern medical world? What happens when the maggots turn into flies?

medical flytrap plants.

she probably called you 'faggot'

From Venus.

Originally posted by effyoo

she probably called you 'faggot'

No, she definitly called me a "maggot".

Ask EyeForAnEye, he was there.

i don't know about all that. but i do know that those pictures are fuckin heinous.:eek: :spent:

Originally posted by ARCEL

is the second one a vagina?

 

on

:lol:

High priest, after i almost threw up i changed the flicks into links...if you wanna change it again do so but i really believe its better to have some control over that shit.

Hope you understand

I actually was sitting here eating when I saw those pics. I guess it is all in your perspective. I didn't bother me at all.

http://www.kak.ru/images/archive/17/piter/Sign-4.gif'>

Finally.

Hmmmm....okay......guess dinner won't be in order tonight! Yah!:(

Shag It, Maggot, faggot, Lag It, Tag It, Nag It,

yeah....

thats all i got..

it took me about 2 mins to decide on whether to click on this thread.. just thought i'd let you know..and no i didnt read what this thread is about..just couldnt do it.. but love me for trying? hahaha

those flicktures are disgusting....

Originally posted by alure

it took me about 2 mins to decide on whether to click on this thread.. just thought i'd let you know..and no i didnt read what this thread is about..just couldnt do it.. but love me for trying? hahaha

Don't be such a girl...

bugs dont gross me out.. or scare me..well except cenepides those are just fucking nasty...

but come on now..maggots?? just thinking about it makes me want to barf

i wonder what they do with the maggots when they're done with them, scrape them off, put them in a bag, then put them with the rest of the medical waste?

Oh, for Pete's sake

That's an amputation stump, not a vagina. Maggots are a hell of a lot less horrifying than gangrene, believe it. In nature, they turn into flies and buzz off. In modern medicene, once the physician determines that the wound is healing and he sees no evidence of infection or necrotic (dead) tissue, they pick the maggots off the wound over a period of a few days with a pair of sterile bandage forceps, and drop them into alcohol, which kills them. As long as the wound is not sealed up with a non-permeable plastic bandage, any maggots the doctor misses will just crawl out of the wound and start looking for some more necrotic tissue to eat. They won't eat live tissue, only dead.

Gross, but kind of lucky for the guy with serious tissue damage.

Kabar made it sound partially humane, but this is one of the most disgusting threads I remember witnessing on this website..

Originally posted by Tesseract

High priest, after i almost threw up i changed the flicks into links...if you wanna change it again do so but i really believe its better to have some control over that shit.

 

Hope you understand

Yea, on second thought i suppose i could have linked those.. so probably better that you went and did that. Thanks.

Kabar, you seem to have a good understanding of this treatment. How often is this used in the modern medical world?

Re: Oh, for Pete's sake

Originally posted by KaBar2

That's an amputation stump, not a vagina.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

fermentor666

I don't think it's used very often, unless the patient has a large amount of necrotic tissue that cannot be debrided (removed, scraped off) any other way. I would imagine that it would be useful if someone had a limb that developed poor circulation or tissue death from some other reason and they had to amputate. I doubt that they would use this technique on a penetrating wound, but hell, I don't know. Maybe. The maggots are specially raised in a STERILE environment, by the way, and not fed---so they'll be hungry.

Another really gross technique involves using LEECHES. When hand surgeons do extensive reconstructive surgery on hands and fingers, they attach sterile leeches to the fingers, who suck the blood of the patient, and CREATE CIRCULATION in the damaged fingers, keeping the digital capillaries open and moving oxygenated blood to the fingertips. They do this with noses and ears, too. Fucking Guh-ROSS, but better than having your fingers develop gangrene. Oooh, I wonder if they use leeches on a damaged penis? Shit, I hope not, LOL. Man, the medical profession is just fucking gross. Why, O why, did I ever become a nurse? (It was the money.) Oh, yeah. Now I remember. To serve mankind and try to make the world a better place.