Medieval maggot treatment used in last-ditch bid to save limbs from amputation

IT’s the stomach-churning treatment proving a life saver. Maggots bred by scientist Merilyn Geary are being used by at least two major Sydney hospitals in a last-ditch attempt to save infected limbs from amputation.

A REPULSIVE medieval treatment is making a comeback in modern medicine.

Maggots have been used to heal wounds on more than 1400 Australians as a last-ditch attempt to save limbs from amputation.

And their ability to feast on dead flesh, while leaving healthy tissue unscathed, could also help combat the antibiotic resistance crisis.

NSW Health Pathology senior scientist Merilyn Geary, the Australian pioneer behind maggot therapy, said the stomach-churning treatment has an 85 per cent success rate.

“It’s pretty horrible but it works,” she said.

Scientist Merilyn Geary at Westmead Hospital which is the only facility in Australia that breeds maggots for medical use. Picture: Tim Hunter.

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“We have a lot of wound consultants and doctors that have used this therapy and, with the right patients and the right wound, they can achieve just amazing results for that patient.

“You won’t convince everybody. There are doctors who think of it as medieval, sort of witchcraft practice and they don’t want any of it in their rooms.”

Based at Sydney’s Westmead Hospital, Dr Geary is the only supplier of medical maggots in Australia with one application (about 100 maggots) costing $150 compared with $25,000 for an amputation.

Nationally about 70 amputations are carried out each week.

Maggots are mostly used to treat conditions such as diabetic ulcers and chronic wounds.

Apart from eating dead flesh, scientists have discovered the creatures can also kill some species of bacteria.

Dr Geary, who originally bred the maggots from blowflies collected in her Parramatta backyard, sends the sterile creepy-crawlies to patients across the country.

The maggots are specially bred to be used for medical purposes.

The cost of 100 maggots is about $150, compared to $25,000 for an amputation.

This week alone, she couriered orders to Liverpool Hospital and Brisbane.

“The maggots are delivered via an Esky, in a little vial with a piece of gauze,” she said.

“The wound consultant puts them on the wound, it’s bandaged up and left for three days. Then the outer dressings are changed and then they’ll assess the wound.”

The UK has already discovered the medical benefits of maggots with the cheap therapy saving the country’s National Health Service about $2.5 billion each year in surgical costs.

NSW Health Pathology Medical Entomology Manager Stephen Doggett said with 280 patients diagnosed with diabetes in Australia each day, maggots are a game-changing treatment for ulcers.

“When you’re diabetic, your circulatory system is poor so that if you get oral or injected antibiotics, it doesn’t go to the site and that’s a problem,” he said.

Dr Geary said: “We get patients that are diabetics that come back and say I want the maggots because it’s quick, there’s no odour associated with it after a couple a days and they’ve had it before and they know what’s going to happen.”