Medical maggots

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Medical Maggots are a prescription only medical device used for maggot therapy. Maggot therapy (also known as Maggot Debridement Therapy (MDT), larval therapy, larva therapy, or larvae therapy) is a type of biotherapy involving the intentional introduction by a health care practitioner of live, disinfected maggots (fly larvae) into the non-healing skin and soft tissue wound(s) of a human or animal for the purpose of selectively cleaning out only the necrotic (dead) tissue within a wound in order to promote wound healing.

In the United States, Medical Maggots are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration as a prescription only medical device. With acceptance of premarket notification 510(k) 033391 in January of 2004, the Food and Drug Administration granted Dr. Ronald Sherman permission to produce and market maggots for use in humans or other animals as a prescription use medical device for the following indications:

"For debriding non-healing necrotic skin and soft tissue wounds, including pressure ulcers, venous stasis ulcers, neuropathic foot ulcers and non-healing traumatic or post surgical wounds."

Currently, there are over 500 health care centers in the United States that have utilized maggot therapy.

Medical Maggots represent the first living organism ever allowed by the Food and Drug Administration for production and marketing as a prescription medical device.

Monarch Labs is the exclusive supplier of Medical Maggots (disinfected Phaenicia sericata larvae) for maggot debridement therapy in the United States.

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