Just reading the title of this episode may have been enough to make you feel grossed out and creepy crawly. And now we’re asking you to listen to a whole episode about maggots? But trust us, it’s worth the journey. Because these little creatures have a hidden depth to them that will surprise, delight, and, we would venture to say, inspire. In this episode, we explore the many ways that maggots have been used by medicine over the centuries up to the present day and the properties they possess that make them heroes of healing. With a discerning palate and something called extracorporeal digestion, maggots can show us that, when it comes to wound healing, teamwork makes the dream work.
| History | Biology |
| Baer, William S. “The treatment of chronic osteomyelitis with the maggot (larva of the blow fly).” JBJS 13.3 (1931): 438-475. | Stadler, F., 2022. A complete guide to maggot therapy: clinical practice, therapeutic principles, production, distribution, and ethics (p. 468). Open Book Publishers. |
| Gupta, Amit. “A review of the use of maggots in wound therapy.” Annals of plastic surgery 60.2 (2008): 224-227. | Fonseca‐Muñoz, A., Sarmiento‐Jiménez, H.E., Pérez‐Pacheco, R., Thyssen, P.J. and Sherman, R.A., 2020. Clinical study of Maggot therapy for Fournier’s gangrene. International wound journal, 17(6), pp.1642-1649. |
| Kruglikova, A. A., and S. I. Chernysh. “Surgical maggots and the history of their medical use.” Entomological review 93 (2013): 667-674. | Armstrong, D.G., Rowe, V.L., D’Huyvetter, K. and Sherman, R.A., 2020. Telehealth‐guided home‐based maggot debridement therapy for chronic complex wounds: Peri‐and post‐pandemic potential. International Wound Journal, 17(5), pp.1490-1495. |
| Pechter, Edward A., and Ronald A. Sherman. “Maggot therapy: the surgical metamorphosis.” Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 72.4 (1983): 567-570. | Grassberger, M., Sherman, R.A., Gileva, O.S., Kim, C.M. and Mumcuoglu, K.Y., 2013. Biotherapy-History, principles and practice. Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London, 37, pp.38-39. |
| Robinson, William. “The use of blowfly larvae in the treatment of infected wounds.” Annals of the Entomological Society of America 26.2 (1933): 270-276. | |
| Sherman, Ronald A., M. J. R. Hall, and S. Thomas. “Medicinal maggots: an ancient remedy for some contemporary afflictions.” Annual review of entomology 45.1 (2000): 55-81. | |
| Wainwright, Milton. “Maggot therapy—a backwater in the fight against bacterial infection.” Pharmacy in history 30.1 (1988): 19-26. | |
| Weil, Grover C., Richard J. Simon, and Walter R. Sweadner. “A biological, bacteriological and clinical study of larval or maggot therapy in the treatment of acute and chronic pyogenic infections.” The American Journal of Surgery 19.1 (1933): 36-48. | |
| Whitaker, Iain S., et al. “Larval therapy from antiquity to the present day: mechanisms of action, clinical applications and future potential.” Postgraduate medical journal 83.980 (2007): 409-413. | |
| Wollina, Uwe, et al. “Biosurgery in wound healing–the renaissance of maggot therapy.” Journal of the European academy of dermatology and venereology 14.4 (2000): 285-289. |
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, you won’t pay a penny more, but we’ll get a small commission which helps us keep things running. Thanks!
