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Asked by Hatty to Cristiane, Nicki, Nikolai, Richard, Samuel on 10 Mar 2015.
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Cristiane Calixto answered on 10 Mar 2015:
Interesting question. The quick answer is that maggots eat dead tissue and infectious bacteria, helping the healthy tissue to recover.
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Richard Simons answered on 10 Mar 2015:
Maggots only eat dead or infected tissue, and do so very gently; living tissue can’t become infected, and so the maggots can help keep a wound clean.
Because maggots are very gentle and selective they can clean a wound very effectively; if a surgeon were to try and remove infected tissue it would likely involve the loss of a lot of health tissue too. The maggots help keep as much healthy tissue as possible -
Samuel Ellis answered on 10 Mar 2015:
As the others have already said, maggots are remarkably good at removing all the dead tissue, far more exactly than a human could with tools. Maggots used in hospital are first disinfected though, to make sure they aren’t carrying any bacteria which could get in the patient.
As well as eating the tissue, maggots also secrete slimy substances which are good at killing bacteria (sometimes even better than some antibiotics). This means they also disinfect wounds. There is evidence that the maggots help speed up our natural wound healing processes too.
Maggots have been used to clean wounds a long time, as far back as in ancient Native American and Aboriginal tribes. Now they are becoming a more common tool in modern hospitals. In a way they are very useful little doctors! 🙂
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Nikolai Adamski answered on 10 Mar 2015:
As everyone said, the maggots eat only dead and infected tissue, while leaving healthy tissue intact. That makes them great for cleaning wounds, which helps with accelerating the rate healing.
And as Sam said, it’s tried and tested “technology”.
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