Maggots Treatment

Using maggots to treat wounds and infections may sound primitive, but it has been making a bit of a comeback. Maggots have been used in recent years in the alternative medicine field, and now they are slowly creeping back into mainstream medicine.

Infected Cuts

• Maggots can be used to treat infected cuts in some instances where antibiotics fail. When the sterilized maggots are applied with a cage-like dressing, they are able to get into many wounds and liquefy the dead, infected or necrotic tissue. Maggots secrete a solution that helps to dissolve the skin and clean away the infection. Some patients report feeling a burning or stinging sensation during the treatment, but it is not harmful.

Deep Wounds

• Maggots have also been proven effective in healing deep wounds. When sterile maggots are placed into a wound, they consume the dead, infected tissue but leave healthy tissue intact. The maggots are left in the wound for 48 to 72 hours twice a week. Patients who undergo this treatment have healed faster in many cases than patients who receive traditional treatment. Scientists believe that secretions from maggots contain infection-fighting chemicals.

MRSA Infected Ulcers

• Maggots have been proven helpful in treating diabetic foot ulcers infected with the MRSA strain of infection. The MRSA strain, like several other forms of infection, has grown resistant to several antibiotics. Treating patients with maggots has been more successful. In a study done in Manchester, England, maggots were applied over a period of four days to patients' foot ulcers. No other treatments were administered, but a large majority of patients were cured of the MRSA infection.