HUSUM, Germany (dpa) – These willing helpers may seem rather revolting but they’re a blessing to doctors – maggots, or more precisely fly larvae of the Lucilia sericata species.
The little busy bodies are being used successfully to treat wounds which traditional surgery and antibiotics have failed to heal.One of the few clinics in north Germany where the “bio-surgery” is systematically applied is the regional hospital in Husum, north Fresia.The medical director of surgery, Hong Gioi Gian has “employed” the creepy crawlies since April and according to the clinic, he has already treated 40 patients successfully. There is hardly a kinder wound treatment, says the man from Vietnam.In most cases, the patient does not feel any pain, “at the most a tingling feeling when the maggots are particularly active and crawl over nerve endings”.The idea may seem repulsive: Recently hatched, sterile maggots and only one or two millimetres long are applied to the wound and tightened with a light compress. They remain there for three to four days and do a better job than a surgeon: With the help of a secretion, they eat away dead tissue and destroy bacteria without touching healthy tissue, said Husum hospital doctor Dr. Joachim Pfeffer explains.In southern Germany, maggot therapy is already widespread and was introduced by lecturer Wim Fleischmann from Bietigheim. Hong Gioi Gian became acquainted with it there. According to specialist literature, the method is not an invention of modern medicine. Rather, it has been handed down since the Middle Ages and was known to the Mayan and Indian cultures.Several hospitals in the northern port of Hamburg have had their own experiences with it. The university clinic in Eppendorf conducts wound surgery similar to the one which the Husum initiators Giang and Pfeffer want to establish in the north Fresian town. Many people who wish to undergo the maggot treatment often come far too late, that is, when complications are on the horizon.They could be helped mroe swiftly and spared a lot of suffering. In addition, maggot therapy is far cheaper than other local wound treatments. According to the medics, it can be applied among other things to chronic wounds, to many side-effects of diabetes, ulcerated legs and decubitus (boils suffered from constant lying down).In Germany, 28,000 amputations of the so-called “diabetic foot” are carried out annually. Many of these amputations could have been prevented with the help of “bio-surgery”.It is not the patients who have to be convinced but rather doctors and medical personnel says Joachim Pfeffer: “People plagued by pain are so glad to be helped that they do not think about how revolting it is”.
