Is Maggot Therapy Beneficial for Venous Ulcers?

Since antiquity, many observers have noted that wounds infested with maggots were clean and healed well, but the first known intentional therapeutic use of these fly larvae was by a Civil War surgeon, who felt that such treatment saved many lives. This therapy became popular only after William Baer, an American orthopedic surgeon, having noted the benefits of maggot infestation in wounded World War I soldiers, employed it in patients with osteomyelitis in 1928. With the advent of antibiotics, however, larval therapy nearly disappeared. It has been revived lately because of its apparent value in wound debridement, disinfection, and stimulation of healing, but only recently has its efficacy been investigated in randomized trials.

This multicen…