Maggots may help heal diabetes wounds

Larvae secrete substances that liquefy dead tissue and ingest the material

To jump-start the healing of difficult diabetic wounds, US researchers have a suggestion: let maggots do the work. To allow such wounds to heal, doctors remove infected or dead tissue with scalpels or enzymes, a process they call debridement. But these tools often fail.

"These problem patients with diabetes really need better treatments in order to salvage their limbs," said Lawrence Eron from Kaiser Hospital and the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, who with colleagues presented their findings at a recent scientific meeting in Chicago.