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[deleted] t1_irfm7y7 wrote

[removed]

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The-Real-Dr-Jan-Itor t1_irfpl5s wrote

A few nuances to this - medical leeches aren’t sterile. In fact they have bacteria that can cause serious infections, so patients are treated prophylactically with antibiotics when treated with leeches.

Also, leeches aren’t used for skin grafts, but instead flaps, or other tissues that have poor blood flow (they are used to drain congested tissues to prevent tissue death).

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kazr99 t1_irfngyj wrote

Why would they do that?

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Maephia t1_irfofse wrote

Leech saliva has very useful properties that make it helpful to heal, it helps bloodflow, can reduce coagulation and other things. Leeches and maggots are extremely useful still in modern medicine.

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ackermann t1_irfpj5i wrote

> Leech saliva has very useful properties that make it helpful to heal

Maybe we could just harvest the saliva then, rather than using actual leeches? You could buy “leech saliva” over the counter, to put on small wounds, under a bandaid.

Or perhaps synthesize the relevant components. Add them to products like Neosporin

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Maephia t1_irfptmr wrote

If it could be done it would be done so I assume there are issues. Plus this works well, is safe and is cheap so why change?

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jackjackj8ck t1_irfslhz wrote

The actual bloodsucking they do help promotes blood flow to the skin grafts

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kazr99 t1_irfsp8n wrote

It’s probably not worth it and my guess is the extraction of the saliva could not yield enough and other local anesthetics are probably cheaper to produce.

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Uncynical_Diogenes t1_irg8o96 wrote

The person who offhandedly proposes that we farm leeches for their proteins never stops to think about why it is just easier to farm leeches.

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EbagI t1_irg1qxd wrote

We actually do have a medicine directly from their saliva (hirudin, the medicine is a synthetic analog, bivalirudin)

But, the benefit of the leech therapy is that it get exactly where you want it and really helps with microvasculature, bivalirudin is IV only (i.e. you can only give it via an a vein and it circulated systemically)

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Uncynical_Diogenes t1_irg8r6w wrote

Like yeah, we can make leech juice, but we can’t administer it leech-style, which is the main benefit of administering leeches in the first place.

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Magere-Kwark t1_irfnv6z wrote

I assume to encourage blood flow to the newly added skin.

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IEnjoyFancyHats t1_irfo4uo wrote

There's also been some use of maggots in a medical context, they eat necrotic tissue and leave the living stuff alone

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memearchivingbot t1_irg422u wrote

Yes, just to add on they have to use specific kinds of maggots that prefer necrotic tissue. Just in case anyone without healthcare coverage tries using this kind of treatment you'd need to make sure you have the kind that won't eat living tissue

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