Maggots Work As Well As Medicine For Treating Leg Ulcers

Boston (HealthKnowItAll) - Study results indicate that treating a leg ulcer with maggots maybe just as effective as is standard treatment.

This may gross a lot of people out, but hundreds of years ago, those pesky little maggots saved the lives of millions of Europeans, who first invented the treatment.

Researchers wanted to determine if the maggot treatment was better than regular drug therapy when it came to treating leg ulcers.

They studied more than 250 patients with leg ulcers, some of which received a medicated gel, and others receiving maggot treatment.

The patients who received the maggot treatment, healed just as fast as did patients receiving the gel.

Patients in the maggot group did however report more pain than the gel group.

“Maggots definitely work, but this is not the standard of care in any developed country,” said Dr. Harold Brem, a wound expert at New York University Langone Medical Center.

“If you are out in a remote place and don’t have access to a surgeon or good medical care, then maybe maggots are an option,” Brem added.