LARVA THERAPY MAKES A COMEBACK

David Armstrong, DPM, PhD faced a predicament. He had a patient with an open wound that he needed to clean to remove dead tissue that could prevent proper healing, or worse. Infection could lead to severe pain and require limb amputation. But he didn’t have access to an operating room. Left with few other choices, he turned to an unexpected surgical assistant: maggots. 

 

Dr. David Armstrong

 

While this scene might seem like one that unfolded on the front lines of the U.S. Civil War or in a remote field hospital, Armstrong is actually a present-day surgeon at the University of Southern California. He is one of many clinicians turning to medical maggots as a tool for treating challenging wounds. The critters he uses, an early larval stage of a fly called Lucilia sericata, have an insatiable appetite for dead tissue and can claw their way through a wound, cleaning it with precision that even the most dexterous surgeon might envy. “It would be the height of hubris to think somehow we should discard something that has been around for a long time that is quite helpful,” Armstrong said.

 

Source: Aparna Nathan, Drug Discovery News [11/1/21]

Courtesy of Barry Block, editor of PM News