Actually, maggot therapy is the preferred method of treating such injuries.
Recent research shows that not only do the maggots eat only the dead tissue, their droppings are a very powerful antibiotic. They have to protect themselves, after all? Also, they crawl between the dead and healthy tissue, establishing a boundary layer. Finally, the movement over healthy tissue acts as a continuous massage, increasing blood flow and encouraging tissue regrowth.
Wounds that were once fatal can now be treated and leave little to no scarring after.
Just don't try to do it yourself. There are LOTS of blowflies that will quite cheerfully colonize an infected wound, but only the green bottle is safe and effective. Also, you don't want a fly that was previously feeding on a dead rat to administer treatment. Best to get them from a sterile lab.
I should have said "gives me the creeps," since the thought of little thingies squirming around in a gaping wound is unappealing. I know medical maggots are very effective and safe, as are medical leeches for draining blood, but I didn't know they were antobiotic and stimulated tissue growth!
What? Maggot debridement therapy is considered the ideal method, especially if you get them cryo'd from a lab so they were grown in sterile conditions. The maggots like dead tissue, so they leave the live stuff alone. I mean, it's probably not a process I would want to watch, but my understanding is that it works really well.
It is! Nature's great that way. It's also apparently not uncommon for homeless people in the ER to show a clean wound under a maggot infestation. I wonder what they do with the flies, once the maggots metaphorphize.
I was thinking more along the lines of "My unborn child is gay!" and the inevitable dilemma of "do I keep the child or not". Which will go first, the unwavering belief that gayness is evil, or the unwavering belief that abortion is murder?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2010-07-29 05:06 pm (UTC)#2 is particularly....not nice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedsore#Debridement
no subject
Date: 2010-07-29 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-29 05:50 pm (UTC)Recent research shows that not only do the maggots eat only the dead tissue, their droppings are a very powerful antibiotic. They have to protect themselves, after all? Also, they crawl between the dead and healthy tissue, establishing a boundary layer. Finally, the movement over healthy tissue acts as a continuous massage, increasing blood flow and encouraging tissue regrowth.
Wounds that were once fatal can now be treated and leave little to no scarring after.
Just don't try to do it yourself. There are LOTS of blowflies that will quite cheerfully colonize an infected wound, but only the green bottle is safe and effective. Also, you don't want a fly that was previously feeding on a dead rat to administer treatment. Best to get them from a sterile lab.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-29 06:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-29 05:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-29 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-29 07:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-29 08:22 pm (UTC)(Damn, I don't have a SC-related usericon. Feh.)
no subject
Date: 2010-07-30 12:30 am (UTC)Ow, but LOL.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-29 09:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-30 06:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-30 03:26 pm (UTC)You can't make babies in your butt! Although, if you could, it would definitely make life a HECK of a lot more interesting!
"Oh crap! Is this piles or pregnancy?!?"
no subject
Date: 2010-07-30 09:28 pm (UTC)