Maggots, the larval stage of certain flies, are already a federally approved treatment for people with nasty bed sores, chronic post-surgical wounds and diabetic foot ulcers.

Now, maggot therapy has received a boost from the medical establishment that could make it easier for patients and doctors to get insurance reimbursement for this treatment, which was noticed as effective against war wounds by Napoleon’s surgeon general as well as by orthopedic surgeon Dr. William S. Baer during WWI, among others.

Today, specially prepared maggots, typically of the green bottle fly, are used to “debride” wounds, feeding on sick tissue so healthy cells can move in and further infection is avoided. Maggot therapy was common in the United States in the 1930s but was replaced by antibiotics in the following decade or so. Now, with the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria including MRSA or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, maggot therapy is getting a second look.

The new boost came last week when the American Medical Association and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services clarified its reimbursement guidelines to the wound care community for medicinal maggots and maggot therapy. (…)

“It’s strange, but some insurance companies will pay tens of thousands of dollars for an amputation, probably because it is so common nowadays, but will hesitate or object to paying $100 for a course of maggot therapy,” said Sherman, “even though studies repeatedly demonstrate that medicinal maggots have saved 40 to 50 percent of limbs otherwise scheduled for amputation due to non-healing wounds.”

{ LiveScience | Continue reading }

related { She went to a Brooklyn emergency room suffering from what she thought was just a kidney stone, but a medical nightmare left her partly blind and a quadruple amputee. | NY Daily News | Continue reading }

READ MORE >> science, economics, insects & spiders, health | November 21st, 2008