This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on ISI (3)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal

Arch Intern Med. 2002;162:1906-1907.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Wound infection and retention of collagenous debris often impede the healing of chronic skin ulcers. We cultivated the fly species Lucilia sericata and used live larvae to debride the ulcer ground of necrotic tissue in 6 cases of refractory skin ulcers. Biosurgery by larvae is a feasible and effective approach for cleansing debris and microbial infestation.

Chronic skin ulcers represent a major problem in health care. Before surgical intervention or skin grafting, the ulcers have to be clean in terms both of collagenous debris and of bacterial overgrowth. An interesting alternative to the often ineffective use of fibrinolytic and collagenolytic enzyme preparations^1-3 is the application of living fly maggots.⁴ Larvae of certain fly species digest all necrotic material, but never damage living tissue.⁵ This application has been termed biosurgery. We describe a case series of 6 patients in whom biosurgery either served as an essential preparation for skin grafting . . . [Full Text of this Article]

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Maggot Therapy: The Science and Implication for CAM Part I--History and Bacterial Resistance
Nigam et al.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2006;3:223-227.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT