Creepy Crawlie Therapy?

Discussion Humans are only one species among the multitudes that inhabit the earth. While many species are used by humans for food, clothing or shelter, as a higher evolved organism, humans are particularly aware of other species that move as they could be a potential predator or cause injury. This wariness is protective, but moving animal species can be domesticated (e.g. dogs, horses), farmed (e.g. cattle, goats) or harvested (e.g. fish, silk) for human use for food, clothing or shelter and also for medicinal use. Learning Point Medical leeches have been used since ancient times. The most commonly used leech is Hirudo medicinalis named by Linneaus in 1758. It attaches to the host with a posterior sucker, bites with 3 jaws, and feeds on ~2-20 ml of blood usually within 10-30 minutes. Its saliva has several anticoagulants which allows for continued blood oozing up to 48 hours. It is the oozing effect that is the most useful to help in the treatment of large soft tissue hematomas (e.g. tongue), and especially for venous congestion after surgery for tissue flap reconstructions or reimplantation after amputations. Venous congestion can cause many problems in various surgical repairs and is a common reason for tissue flap failures. Hirudotherapy (or use of medical leeches) is considered an adjuvant after determining that there is not an arterial problem or venous congestion problem that is amenable to further surgery. Hirudotherapy can also be used if additional surgery is contra...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news