Safety, effectiveness and economic aspects of maggot debridement therapy for wound healing

BACKGROUND Maggot therapy has recently attracted considerable attention as an emerging debridement technique for wound healing. This study aimed to review the safety, effectiveness and economic evaluations of Maggot Debridement Therapy for wound healing. METHODS To retrieve the relevant evidences, the Cochrane Library (until September 2014) was searched by appropriate keywords, using free text and Mesh. Systematic reviews, HTA reports and economic evaluation studies that compared larval therapy with other debridement therapies, such as hydrogel in patients with various kinds of ulcers in terms of side effects, the wound healing rate, the healing time, and cost per QALY, were included. RESULTS Five studies met the inclusion criteria which showed that healing with larval therapy happened a little earlier than the usual methods and that pain perception in larval therapy was a little more than usual methods (as by anesthetic conventional methods). However, the quality of life of those patients who received larval therapy was better and they showed a greater tendency to larval therapy as it was relatively safe and had a low rate of side effects. CONCLUSION It seems that larval therapy has several advantages such as rapid wound debridement, infection elimination, pain control and ulcer healing. The use of larval therapy has the potential to reduce side effects and decrease the need for amputation.