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For ages, people have used maggots — the larval stage of flies — to debride wounds, for they feed on dead, but not live, tissue. Whether such treatment leads to rapid healing, however, has been unclear.
In this multicenter trial from the U.K., researchers enrolled 267 patients with venous or mixed venous and arterial leg ulcers that were covered by at least 25% slough or necrotic tissue. The patients were randomly assigned to three treatment groups: loose maggots (larvae of the green bottle fly), maggots in a mesh bag, or hydrogel dressing. All wounds were covered by compression dressings except during maggot applications (to prevent suffocation of the little helpers). The maggots remained on the wounds for 3 to 4 days, and most patients rec…