Newly old medicine
March 30th 2009 23:34
Lucilia sericata, the green bottle fly
In some areas, modern medicine has significantly changed and improved our lives. In other areas, it has yet to match the efficacy of traditional medicine. And in other areas again, both modern and traditional struggle to get the job done.
One field in the third category is the treatment of leg ulcers.
British researchers have just completed a study into the treatment of leg ulcers, an affliction caused by poor circulation to the legs. The ulcers are difficult to cure and standard contemporary procedures are not always effective.
The British study aimed to compare the effectiveness of both modern and traditional treatments. A total of 267 patients were involved, split randomly between two treatments, both lasting six months.
One group was treated with hydrogel, a commonly used chemical dressing that rids the wound of the dead tissue. The second group was treated with larvae of green bottle flies.
Maggots.
The study results, published on March 19 in the British medical journal BMJ, compared the two treatments in terms of time to heal, cost and patient comfort. For the first, the study showed the two treatments to be equally effective, meaning the maggots can rid a wound of dead tissue just as effectively as anything modern science has come up with.
The maggots lost out, marginally, on points two and three, however. Surprisingly, treatment by maggot proved slightly more expensive. Not so surprisingly, it proved slightly less comfortable.
The conclusion of the researchers was that there was little difference between the two treatments.
So who would want to choose treatment with maggots even if there wasn't a pharmacy around the corner well-stocked with hydrogel?
The answer is pretty much any long-suffering leg ulcer patient desperate to find something that works. “We did lot of research asking for patients’ views,” said Nicky Collum, a professor at the University of York and co-author of the study, “and most of these patients are really desperate for an effective treatment because they’ve had these wounds for months or years. They’re really eager to try this method.”
bmj.com, nytimes.com; image: johnsonscreek.co.uk
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