Did wound care for two years. We never used leeches but only a few times did we use maggots. They are great to debride a wound without the need to take a patient to surgery especially if their surgical risk was too high and couldn't get clearance.
I have cared for patients with "community acquired" leeches and maggots. The infestation in the wounds definitely debrides the wound beds, but it is unpleasant, to say the least. I wrote a protocol for removing these maggots. But, there are companies that sell sterile maggots for the purpose of wound debridement. There are specific protocols for the skin preparation and the tenting of the wound.
Marlene Balik, BSN, RN, CWCN
Yes I did and have great success keeping blood flow. It was for finger reattachement post op! Very strange to do (at first) but those suckers (literally) work!
Yes I have and we had great success with restoring blood flow to the area.
No however, I saw them used in treating a failing graph. It helped but the process took weeks and additional medications for the patient
They used to use leeches after plastic surgery or micro surgery (limb or digit re-attachments) to help prevent edema or hematoma. Recollection is that is worked well. Problem was when the leeches got full, they would stop sucking and we would find them in the patients bed.
I've heard that they can prevent the need for surgery or corrective intervention. It was an article that came out recommending that they be sterile before using them I'm not sure how that works? But there has been a few amount of success using them
