July 12, 2004 – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just approved the use of medicinal leeches in hospitals, to help heal wounds or optimize the healing of skin grafts in patients.
In fact, the FDA has granted a license to market these annelid worms to a French company that has been breeding medicinal leeches for 150 years already. By this gesture, the FDA formalizes the legality of this ancient technique which, moreover, is already practiced in several American hospitals.
In Quebec, hospitals – including Notre-Dame Hospital – also use medicinal leeches to accelerate the healing of certain wounds, particularly in plastic and cosmetic surgery.
The sucking action of leeches would help tissue vascularization and blood circulation, promoting faster healing of wounds and grafts.
In addition, several properties are attributed to the saliva of leeches: it is both analgesic, anticoagulant, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and anesthetic.
The medicinal leech (Hirudo medicinalis) is a ring-shaped worm, devoid of silk and terminated with a suction cup at each end. Reaching about 10 cm long by 8 mm wide, it lives in swamps. Since it is on the list of endangered species, several laboratories have decided to breed it.
Martin LaSalle – PasseportSanté.net
According to AP.
