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A Welsh firm breeding maggots to heal wounds

theguardian.com

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Re: A Welsh firm breeding maggots to heal wounds

#11

Post by Archipelagia »

Here's an interesting part that's buried by the end:

>Another area of research focuses on maggots’ wound-healing properties. “Clinical and anecdotal evidence suggested that maggots improve or accelerate and stimulate a wound to heal,” says Nigam. “We were really interested in why this could be possible when that’s of no evolutionary interest to the maggot at all. We’ve discovered that it’s more than likely an inadvertent happening. > >“The growth factors [hormones] that are produced have a very similar structure to the human molecules and that is how perhaps by accident the human wound is stimulated to heal faster. We’re going to investigate that further.”

Re: A Welsh firm breeding maggots to heal wounds

#12

Post by 1659447091 »

lmz wrote: post #10
rektide wrote: post #8

Omgosh. This is indeed the article title ("People are shocked") but the full quote from inside. > "People are shocked at how effective it is," Im not sure if I have the stomach to handle 4 days of maggot-patch, but it has very much occured to me that we are really really bad at woundcare, that there is very little to deal well with dead skin (debridement). And that that is a huge limitation of healing. I have high re…

It says they're put in a pouch so they won't be directly on your skin. Not sure how much crawling you'll feel though (and hopefully we're never put in a place to find out).

> Not sure how much crawling you'll feel though

The article mentioned "Some may feel a tickling sensation.."

I think this is one of those I would have to "lean in" to and watch them crawl around. Like anything with needles, I have to watch them draw blood or give the shots, otherwise its so much worse

Re: A Welsh firm breeding maggots to heal wounds

#13

Post by [deleted] »

Archipelagia wrote: post #11

Here's an interesting part that's buried by the end: >Another area of research focuses on maggots’ wound-healing properties. “Clinical and anecdotal evidence suggested that maggots improve or accelerate and stimulate a wound to heal,” says Nigam. “We were really interested in why this could be possible when that’s of no evolutionary interest to the maggot at all. We’ve discovered that it’s more than likely an inadver…

[deleted]

Re: A Welsh firm breeding maggots to heal wounds

#14

Post by dieselgate »

Wow cool to see this as it’s not really an everyday HN post. Im somewhat familiar with research on fruit flies so kind of cool to think of the larvae being the “product” here instead of the fly. Of course the real end goal is the medical healing..

Curious on how maggots and leeches may overlap with their medical uses?

Maggots can be gross when seen en masse in the “wild” but I’d probably be fine with using them in controlled environments.

Re: A Welsh firm breeding maggots to heal wounds

#17

Post by jononomo »

Archipelagia wrote: post #11

Here's an interesting part that's buried by the end: >Another area of research focuses on maggots’ wound-healing properties. “Clinical and anecdotal evidence suggested that maggots improve or accelerate and stimulate a wound to heal,” says Nigam. “We were really interested in why this could be possible when that’s of no evolutionary interest to the maggot at all. We’ve discovered that it’s more than likely an inadver…

Just another example of evolution being taken for granted. As far as I can tell the theory doesn’t even explain the origin of species, let alone the wound-healing properties of maggots.

Re: A Welsh firm breeding maggots to heal wounds

#18

Post by NateEag »

dieselgate wrote: post #14

Wow cool to see this as it’s not really an everyday HN post. Im somewhat familiar with research on fruit flies so kind of cool to think of the larvae being the “product” here instead of the fly. Of course the real end goal is the medical healing.. Curious on how maggots and leeches may overlap with their medical uses? Maggots can be gross when seen en masse in the “wild” but I’d probably be fine with using them in co…

> Curious on how maggots and leeches may overlap with their medical uses?

I think very little.

I have no relevant expertise, but I think maggots are used mainly because they eat dead flesh - good for cleaning out necrotic wounds.

IIRC, leeches are used in the modern era for the impacts they can have on your vascular system (since they've evolved to suck blood, they have some interesting biochemistry around that, IIUC).

Re: A Welsh firm breeding maggots to heal wounds

#19

Post by jhoechtl »

glfharris wrote: post #15

I've prescribed these for some patients. Always funny when they arrive in little sachets to the wards, and sometimes takes a little bit of explaining just what we're recommending!

What's your profession? And where is such a treatment accepted?

Re: A Welsh firm breeding maggots to heal wounds

#20

Post by AlexCoventry »

jhoechtl wrote: post #19
glfharris wrote: post #15

I've prescribed these for some patients. Always funny when they arrive in little sachets to the wards, and sometimes takes a little bit of explaining just what we're recommending!

What's your profession? And where is such a treatment accepted?

Probably an MD. This is a mainstream treatment. My understanding is that it's used to deal with necrotic flesh caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. (I could easily be wrong; I heard about this via my wife, who is a hospital chaplain.)
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