|
|
|
Did
you know that doctors starting using leeches 2500 years ago?
Today, this small invertebrate is used for plastic and reconstructive
surgery. The leech causes a
small bleeding wound that mimics circulation in the veins in the affected
area. After the leech is detached the patient bleeds
normally for up to ten hours.
As
most medical/surgical procedures, a patient’s good attitude toward this
use of leeches is important. The
procedure is painless but seem people just don’t like the idea of having
a leech on their body.
Leeches
were widely used for bloodletting in the 1800’s.
At that time, the medical profession felt that bloodletting was
a good thing. Leeches became an endangered species. Then the medical profession changed their tune
about bloodletting, thinking it was a bad thing and the practice was
discontinued. Today leeches
are used again but for different reasons.
Some
physicians use leeches to reduce pain for patients with osteoarthritis. Others use them in plastic surgery, when limbs are detached and
need to be reattached. The surgeons
feel that the leeches help improve impaired circulation.
A
leech’s saliva has an anticoagulant that prevents blood clots, a substance
that dilates blood vessels and an anesthetic to dull pain.
An
Alaskan boy was recently saved with the help of leeches.
He was suffering with an infection that was preventing his internal
organs from getting the blood flow they needed.
Blood was not reaching his hands and feet and they were turning
black and cold. He had a high
fever, but his hands and feet felt like ice.
The
doctor decided that using medicines could be dangerous to the boy so
he ordered leeches to improve the blood flow in the boy’s hands and
feet. He attached them to the
boy’s hands and feet, hoping for blood flow.
Immediately the boy’s skin color improved and blood started flowing.
The therapy was continued for seven days, requiring dozens of
leeches. After a month, the boy recovered fully. Unfortunately, some fingers and toes had to
be amputated, but the boy’s life was saved.
The doctor said that without the leeches the boy would have lost
large chunks of his feet and most of his hands.
|
Many
people count on drugs to make them well. They don’t think of blood sucking
leeches. They don’t know that leeches can save their lives.
