Researchers at the University of Manchester are utilizing maggots to rid diabetic patients of MRSA and treat their foot ulcers.

The research team led by Professor Andrew Boulton used green bottle fly larvae to treat 13 diabetic patients whose foot ulcers were contaminated with MRSA.

Results revealed that all but one were cured within a mean period of three weeks, a much quicker time than the 28-week duration for the conventional treatment.

According to Professor Boulton:

"Maggots are the world's smallest surgeons. In fact they are better than surgeons - they are much cheaper and work 24 hours a day.

They have been used since the Napoleonic Wars and in the American Civil War they found that those who survived were the ones with maggots in their wounds: they kept them clean. They remove the dead tissue and bacteria, leaving the healthy tissue to heal.

Still, we were very surprised to see such a good result for MRSA. There is no reason this cannot be applied to many other areas of the body, except perhaps a large abdominal wound."

The superbug MRSA makes the foot ulcer difficult to treat. On top of the fact the diabetics have difficulty healing their wounds; an MRSA infection worsens the condition because these bugs are often resistant to certain antibiotics.

In this research study, all but one of the patients was cleared of MRSA with no reported adverse side effects or reactions. On removal of the last larval application, there actually was a reduction in sloughy necrotic tissue and an increase in healthy, growing tissue.

Results of this particular study have been reported in the journal Diabetes Care while the research team have been awarded with a £98,000 grant by Diabetes UK to carry out a randomized controlled trial and compare this treatment with two others.

Find more details from the full report.

[In photo: Maggots rid diabetic patient of an antibiotic-resistant infection, methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Credit: University of Manchester.]