Biological wound debridement

In biological debridement, larvae (pathogen-free maggots of the green bottle fly Lucilia sericata) are applied to the wound bed. This therapy was compared with hydrogel dressings in a large randomised controlled trial and demonstrated significantly faster debridement, but did not find faster ulcer healing or increased rates of healing1.

1 Dumville JC, Worthy G, Bland JM, Cullum N, Dowson C, Iglesias C, et al. Larval therapy for leg ulcers (VenUS II): randomised controlled trial. BMJ 2009;338:b773. [ ​ URL ​ ]Return