Abstract
IN 1929, Baer1 introduced maggot therapy into clinical practice as an adjunct to surgery for the treatment of osteomyelitis. This technique became widely used in North America, and was extended to the treatment of other lesions where there was pyogenie infection or tissue necrosis2. Maggots were believed to have a threefold action within a wound: débridement of necrotic tissue by means of proteolytic enzymes1, stimulation of granulation tissue due to the larval excretion allantoin3 and reduction of wound infection. Baer1 did not consider reduction of wound infection to be merely the result of débridement and tissue stimulation, and Robinson3 has shown that allantoin, even in concentrations up to 8 per cent, has no antibacterial activity.
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References
Baer, W. S., J. Bone and Jt. Surg., 13, 438 (1931).
Fine, A., and Alexander, H., J. Bone and Jt. Surg., 16, 572 (1934).
Robinson, W., J. Bone and Jt. Surg., 17, 267 (1935).
Black, R. J., “Paper Chromatography” (Academic Press, Inc., New York, 1952).
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PAVILLARD, E., WRIGHT, E. An Antibiotic from Maggots. Nature 180, 916–917 (1957). https://doi.org/10.1038/180916b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/180916b0
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