Squick factor aside,

[kalibex]

The fascinating medical story of the day:

'A hospital in Northern Ireland has been using an unorthodox treatment involving maggots to treat wounds where modern medicine has failed to cope...Known as larval therapy, the maggots eat dead tissue, but leave healthy tissue alone.'

&

'That a maggot is able to help heal wounds is becoming more readily accepted in medical circles. How it does so is still being determined. Currently, researchers believe that maggots help wounds in three ways. First, they secrete strong enzymes that break down dead tissue into a liquid they can readily lap up. Second, they kill bacteria — by feasting on them along with the dead tissue and also by secreting fluids that raise the pH of the wound, creating an alkaline environment in which the bacteria can no longer live. Third, maggots may also secrete a substance that actually stimulates the development of new blood vessels, and as a result, new tissue growth.'

Comments

[antikythera.livejournal.com]

Eww, neat. I'd always suspected it was just that by getting rid of the already-rotting flesh, they were clearing the source of further infection away from the healthy flesh.

[abates.livejournal.com]

Look how far medical science has come! Why, this is a million miles away from the leeches of the middle ages...