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Infection/Gangrene

Medicinal maggots are not FDA-approved for the treatment of infection, but they have been shown to resolve severe infections. In an interview, Doctor Sherman reported the case of a woman with perforation of the bowels and an infection that had spread through the abdomen, causing gangrene of the bowel wall and peritoneum. It became necessary to remove dead tissue every other day. To reduce the risk of repeated surgery, the attending physician decided to try the maggots.

"Two thousand of them were sprinkled over her open abdomen, and then covered with a dressing," said Sherman. "Two days later the maggots were washed out, revealing no more gangrene. She healed well, and the abdomen closed, without the need for any further intra-abdominal surgery.”

Additionally, there is evidence that medical maggots can be used to treat methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which is increasingly becoming a serious problem in health care. Steve Thomas, who runs the United Kingdom's only commercial unit breeding medicinal maggots, has stated that wounds infected with MRSA are likely to become a major indication for the use of maggot therapy in the future. Thomas used maggots to treat 5 MRSA-infected lesions, none of which had responded to conventional treatment. After 48 hours of maggot therapy, all lesions were MRSA-negative and healing.

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The FDA has approved maggots for the treatment of gangrene.