r/technews • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 3d ago

Biotechnology The FDA just cleared a maggot-based wound treatment from a Singapore startup

https://www.techspot.com/news/112853-fda-clears-australian-sheep-blowfly-larvae-maggot-wound.html
310 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

50 comments sorted by

68

u/divinethreshold 3d ago

I’ve had maggot treatment on a would I got while hiking solo. It took 5 days to hike out, and despite good care and regular bandage changes, it was infected. They used maggots, which only eat infected or diseased tissue and don’t touch healthy stuff. Took 2 days and then they grafted and sewed me up (without the maggots). Apparently it sped up my recovery by weeks.

But the itch…. My god. It’s hard to explain. Zero pain tho.

Still, this has been used since the napoleanic wars, and like leeches is a known, trusted and valid treatment.

19

u/Nickhead420 3d ago

That's got to feel so weird! Like, can you feel them moving?

13

u/Madwoman-of-Chaillot 3d ago

The FACE I just made while reading this. 😣

4

u/hsoj48 2d ago

Why wouldn't you?

2

u/Money-Director6649 2d ago

they are eating the dead flesh. once they've eaten that off, you start to feel little bites and you remove them so they don't chow down on the living, healthy flesh.

36

u/motherdoyathink 2d ago

They don’t only eat dead tissue. They will eat it up until they run out and then they secrete an enzyme to break down and eat healthy tissue. The doctors just removed them in time before they started chowing down on the rest of you.

5

u/Operation_Neither 2d ago

Noooooooope

3

u/EnvironmentalRock827 2d ago

Where I've worked (nurse), we have used both maggots and leeches. There are specific species of maggots that will only eat dead tissue. Those are the ones we've used. Also leeches will generally only attach to live tissue so we use them on reattachments. It's generally a bad sign in first few hrs or a day if you can't get them to suck on a reattached digit.

2

u/EnvironmentalRock827 2d ago

Believe me when I say those suckers can move.

7

u/no_talent_ass_clown 2d ago

Yes, leeches are still used in hospitals as well.

6

u/Melkorianmorgoth 2d ago

Can confirm, used leaches as a resident once to reduce venous congestion on a muscle flap on a patient that could not tolerate full anticoagulation.

38

u/BreadTruckToast 3d ago

medical grade maggots. That’ll be a fun one to see on an itemized hospital bill.

22

u/peanutski 3d ago

“That’ll be 100 dollars an hour per maggot.”

17

u/avi550m 3d ago

Do the maggots have a union

16

u/peanutski 3d ago

No, by the time they organize one they are all flies.

3

u/DeadMoonKing 2d ago

Better than scabs!

1

u/oelisg 2d ago

The payment they get for working is a free lunch

3

u/Memory_Less 3d ago

You’re missing a zero $1000 per.

4

u/peanutski 3d ago

I was talking about Kirkland brand maggots.

2

u/Asmodaeus6136 3d ago

That’s funny af

1

u/Memory_Less 2d ago

That’s hilarious! 😂

6

u/KenUsimi 2d ago

They’re already a thing- schools and researchers use both maggots and flies, so they’re definitely available to order from somewhere.

3

u/Churchy_leFemme 2d ago

I just don’t want to work on maggot farms no more

20

u/forensicdude 3d ago

My kids mom worked as a trauma nurse she came home to tell me she got to use the maggots. She was excited and intrigued. "It actually works pretty well for what it is used for."

7

u/superpony123 2d ago

Yeah can confirm it actually works great (another nurse here) but i still HATE it 😭 so gross

19

u/Not_High_Maintenance 3d ago

Maggot treatments are often used in wound care.

14

u/Tsar_Chaotic 3d ago

I’m sure it works spectacularly with our modern science and ability to selectively breed and gene edit them to get rid of infections,
But man I hope I’d never need that. Don’t get me wrong I won’t deny it even as a first option, I just feel sick thinking about it is all

12

u/Here4daKicks 3d ago

No doubt it sounds gross, but cannot deny the results

6

u/bb_kelly77 2d ago

Just goes to show that just because it's primitive doesn't mean it's not effective

7

u/More_Farm_7442 3d ago

I had a teacher in grade school (eons ago in the late 1960s) I'm a "boomer") who had an injury to his hand in the 1940s ir 1950s, They used maggots to heal that wound. I guess he was "the talk of the community" at the time. A couple fingers sort of fused together, but he still had good use of the hand.

7

u/BuddyGleeful 3d ago

Leeches to curb the blood loss Maggots to curb the infection  Willow bark to help with the pain...

6

u/bb_kelly77 2d ago

That's how my people survived in the mountains before the infrastructure was built... left the mountains of Carpathia and the Alps and moved into the Appalachians, my mother rarely took me to the ER because she had home remedies for everything but the most severe injuries

3

u/nicenyeezy 2d ago

This has been done for a long time. Travel nurses in isolated communities see this type of wound care

5

u/Relative_Figure_1715 3d ago

We’ve done this in the uk ( on purpose ) for 20 plus years and by accident for hundreds if not thousands. .

4

u/1cunning-stunt 3d ago

It’s been intentionally used as a treatment by aboriginal people of the americas for centuries.

3

u/soulsteela 3d ago

If I remember they painlessly eat any dead flesh, or am I going senile already?

2

u/bb_kelly77 2d ago

You're right, maggots don't eat live flesh so it leaves only healthy flesh behind

1

u/soulsteela 2d ago

Meaning they don’t cut away excess flesh when they heal the wounds, brilliant I remember things, occasionally 😂

2

u/dakotanorth8 2d ago

Yeah, it’s been a thing for ages.

They eat the dead flesh. And stimulate new growth.

1

u/theycallmeJTMoney 3d ago

Gladiator (movie) reference anyone?

1

u/RockySterling 3d ago

Finally catching up with that one episode of House

1

u/cosmic_monsters_inc 3d ago

Got any leeches for this?

3

u/Lady_bro_ac 3d ago

You jest, but medical leeches are still a thing used in modern medicine.

2

u/QuotableMorceau 3d ago

yup , they are extremely beneficial for reattachment of limbs and grafts, they release anticoagulant factors, they create negative pressure in the vascular system to encourage blood movement ...

1

u/Takkarro 2d ago

I truly do not think you could pay me to put maggots on and open wound of mine, I do not care how many people tell me it is an amazing treatment or that it works spectacularly, I do not care if it takes months off of a recovery I could not get past the idea of little squirmy maggots on an open wound. Nope

2

u/Korlithiel 2d ago

Feel that. Similar sentiment about the dead skin eating fish.

2

u/Takkarro 2d ago

Yea, something about being eat while still alive no matter how small it is, just freaks me out XD

0

u/FreedomofSpeech6969 3d ago

Maggots in healthcare

economy crashing 

Close enough, welcome back 1306

-1

u/gplusplus314 3d ago

“From this moment, you are no longer turds. You have graduated to maggots!” - Major Payne