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Subject: Trenchfoot
Thomas    3/12/2004 8:41:59 AM
One of my freinds got a nasty infection which resulted in thrombosis of some of the vessels in his toes. Result he is going to lose his toes.

What may interest some of You on this board is: His dead and gangrene-prone flesh has - as an authorised treatment - been eaten by maggots that were deposited into the wounds.

If heard, that this treatment was used during the american civil war, where there were sterialised maggots in the pharmacy on major hospitals.

The advantage is that the maggots remove ONLY the dead meat and preserves tissue, that the knife would have damaged.

Is that going to be a treatment for gas-gangrene??
 
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gf0012-aust    Maggots   3/12/2004 8:56:33 AM
Don't the Russians use maggotts as well in some of their trauma areas?
 
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Jack Tar    RE:Maggots   3/12/2004 9:03:51 AM
I think the NHS (National Health Service) in the UK has been trialling the use of maggots.(Might even be quite widespread by now) They seem to be especially useful on severe ulcers.
 
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gf0012-aust    Maggots   3/12/2004 9:06:22 AM
yeah, well, the thought of having maggots trawling for dead meat would make my mouth get better... ;)
 
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Horsesoldier    RE:Trenchfoot   3/12/2004 9:24:27 AM
My understanding is that the American Civil War usage was accidental, and owed to the poor medical care and tendency to leave casualties laying out under trees before and after surgery.
 
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Thomas2    RE:Trenchfoot   3/13/2004 3:22:24 PM
Horsesoldier My reference is Isac Asimov's compilation of weird facts. The ones I've been able to check are all right. Besides most discoveries are by accident, but Asimov distinctly said STERILE maggots.
 
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pluto77189    RE:Trenchfoot   3/30/2004 8:18:14 AM
There was an episode of the "color of War" on the history channel, concerning WWII medics. I missed this episode, thank God, but my father caught it. They had a guy, with his face totally burned, and infected. They put maggots on his face--his FACE--and covered him up in a gauze mask for a "while." They showed them removing the "mask", and the medics were all sick and about to puke from the smell. the Guy's face was CRAWLING with maggots, and it stunk. But he lived. They secrete a digestive fluid that dissolves flesh, and they suck it up. I can't remember HOW they don't eat living fleshg, but I think it was a matter of the maggot's behavior rather than chemical properties of their digestive fluid...have to look it up again. It's cleaner, more precise, and safer than ANYTHING we can come up with right now. I think the worst part of dying is the potential for maggots feeding off my still living body--I might rather die.
 
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Horsesoldier    RE:Trenchfoot   3/31/2004 6:19:02 PM
>>Besides most discoveries are by accident, but Asimov distinctly said STERILE maggots << It might have been in practice after the American Civil War, but Lister didn't publish his first article on antiseptic procedures until 1867, and was not universally adopted until some time later, so I have a hard time seeing it in the ACW. It does also beg the question of how, exactly, one sterillizes a maggot . . .
 
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Horsesoldier    RE:Trenchfoot   3/31/2004 6:36:32 PM
>>They secrete a digestive fluid that dissolves flesh, and they suck it up. I can't remember HOW they don't eat living fleshg, but I think it was a matter of the maggot's behavior rather than chemical properties of their digestive fluid...have to look it up again.<< I believe you're right -- they prefer putrefied flesh (if you've ever seen and/or smelled gas gangrene you'll happily let them have it . . .), but once its all gone, they will also eat healthy flesh, so part of maggot debridement is knowing when to bust out the bug spray.
 
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Thomas    Horsesoldier and Pluto   4/5/2004 7:05:31 AM
Sterialising maggots - let them start out without bacteria eating sterile food - I would suggest. Actually - from reliable reports - It might sound disgusting, but in fact it should not be to bad for the patient.
 
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