Most people find maggots gross. If one does not treat his or her wound properly, so much
so that the tissues around the wound become necrotic, there is a possibility that maggots
would grow around the wound. Maggots in that context is, to most people, even more
disgusting. However, in those cases, what are lethal are not the maggots which feed on
dead flesh, but are the bacteria that grow from it. The bacteria may cause septicaemia
which is killing, while the maggots are, surprisingly, not quite harmful to the human body.
In the recently years, there are even cases in which doctors make use of maggots to eat
away the necrotic tissues around the wound to speed up the recovery process. Some
patients are not suitable to undergo surgical procedures to remove these necrotic tissues,
and doctors employs maggots to treat their wounds. Medical practitioners culture maggots
under an aseptic condition, and then these sterile maggots are placed on the wound and
covered with dressing. Every other day medical practitioners would change the dressing and
replace with fresh maggots. There was once a patient with a pressure sore of 5cm in
diameter treated with maggot therapy. The maggots debrided the dead tissues within just
two weeks!
Next time when you see maggots, don’t just think of their gross appearance – maybe you
can think their clinical use too.