FDA Approves Leeches As Medical Devices

[Khephra]

WASHINGTON -- The government has lent its seal of approval to a marketing an age-old medical device -- leeches.

The Food and Drug Administration said Monday that Ricarimpex SAS, a French firm, is the first company to request and receive FDA clearance to market the bloodsucking aquatic animals as medical devices.

more..............

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-fda-leeches,0,1575510.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[clydefrand]

1. Gadzooks!

Bush and Cheney and Rummy will have a purpose after November 2!!!!!!!!!!! :bounce:

[yardwork]

2. LOL!

[Eye and Monkey]

3. and the FDA has approved this "new" bioterror suit for MDs

[benburch]

4. So now...

Whereas doctors who reattached fingers until now had a bucket of live leeches in a fridge that they got at a bait shop for a few dollars, they will now be buying approved leeches at hundreds of dollars a piece?

Progress?

[Berserker]

25. Benbirch

Fishing leeches and medical leeches are very different. I used to own a bait shop

[hightime]

28. Leeches cost between $4.75 to $6.50 apiece.

Sounds mighty economical. YES, it is progress.

[Viking12]

50. $3.25 a dozen at the local bait store :)

I have a bunch in my fridge I'll sell for $4.75 each :)

[HereSince1628]

5. Well, setting aside political biases, leeches CAN effect blood flow

and consequently may contribute to good outcomes of various surgeries involving low blood flow to reattached fingers, etc.

Of course this sort of open-mindeness about the value of invertebrates is what cost me my job as an academic zoologist.

Make fun of it if you must. I am clearly WAY OUTSIDE the mainstream of mainstream opinion. And you REALLY can't cause me anymore damage than I've already suffered.

All I can say is GO MAGGOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Spinzonner]

8. I thought maggots were already in somewhat common use

for 'cleansing' wounds:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/10/1024_031024_maggotmedicine.html

And would you elaborate on the zoologist job bit ?

[justjones]

20. I've actually seen them used in hospitals....

They are used to keep the blood flowing on skin grafts and such. They start out small and after sucking for a few hours they've grown twice in size. It's pretty gross, but apparently effective.

I don't see how this is new "news." Perhaps because they'll use them in other therapies?

[whistle]

6. This will now allow HMOs to seek generic alternatives to leech therapy..

...including mosquito blood sucking, vampire bats and lion bites. These are all being researched under faith based initiatives and alternative medicine.

[Octafish]

7. First job for which Bush is qualified.

[nolabels]

29. Leaches and Vampires are enough

We don't need no Trifectas



http://www.draculasball.com/

[The_Casual_Observer]

9. The have approved a fraud.

Do they plan to replace expensive medical treatment to seniors and the frail with shit like this? We are witnessing a roll back to the "simpler" times of pre New Deal courtesy of the GOP.

[FlaGranny]

12. Hardly a fraud - leeches work!

They have saved many people and their limbs. They have even saved scalps that have been detached in machinery and by dogs.

The only fraud might be, with the FDA approval, they will probably be more costly to use. In fact, leeches work for reestablishing blood supply when all else fails.

[The_Casual_Observer]

14. All of the "brilliant" elite students and researchers working

in field of medicine today, and this is the kind of thing the world gets for the effort?

Please.

[FlaGranny]

39. Nature has evolved things that

we don't even yet dream about. Science is working on nanotechnology (little manufactured "lifeforms"), but not yet ready for prime time. For more: http://www.sciam.com/nanotech/ and also http://www.sciam.com/nanotech/xrayman_vsn100.html

Edit: Even with nanotechnology, it is doubtful we could do what nature can.

[MadHound]

41. Hey, lighten up a bit and open your mind

Nature has being providing mankind with miraculous cures for millions of years now. It is only with the advent of "modern" medicine that we have stopped using what nature provides. Most people don't realize it but nature is a bountiful treasure trove of medicinal remedies. Most every drug in use today can trace it's origin to a naturally occuring compound.

I saw a program a few years ago on the use of medical leeches, and it appears to be a very effective treatment. Just because it seems gross and backwards to you doesn't mean the benefits experienced by patients aren't real. Many common treatments used today have some very gross origins, including various salivas and urine. Mother Nature has provided us with plentiful ways of healing ourselves, should we turn our back on them simply because they come in a more "natural" form?

[Habibi]

10. Ewww!

If I get "leeched", I don't wanna know about it!

[Soloflecks]

19. If that grosses you out, then

we'd better not tell you they also use maggots. The leeches and maggots are laboratory grown in sterile conditions.

[belle]

35. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggghhhhhh

that is all.

[Malva Zebrina]

11. when I was a student nurse, a long time ago in the middle ages

I assisted a doctor who used leeches on an abdominal wound that was just not healing. It worked.

[Skittles]

13. I've seen it on TV - leeches DO work

and when the patients get over their initial revulsion they are A-OK with it because they know it might help.

[treepig]

16. ok, as long as it's been on tv

it's veracity is pretty much ensured (except for this particular forum, of course, where nothing holds water without an internet link . . . )

[Skittles]

21. well, you know what I mean

it was in a documentary, talking about how they actually work :D

[treepig]

38. yeah sure, guess it's just my dis-illusionment showing through

about when i recently found out that tv actually lies to you.

true story - the dumb-ass local fox affiliate sometimes shows baseball games. one was running late, and was cutting into the simpsons. finally the game ended, about 11 minutes into the show - during this 11 minutes the following message kept scrolling across the bottom of the screen: "the simpsons will be shown immediately following the conclusion of the game."

so what happens when the game ends - first 4 1/2 minutes of commercials. then 2 to 3 minutes of interview with the "player of the game." then 3 more minutes of commercials. then idiotic "post-game analysis" for close to 6 minutes. then more commercials. needless to say, by then the simpsons was over and the promise that they'd be shown "immediately" after the game was nothing by a blatant lie.

in conclusion, perhaps also needless to say, this incident profoundly shook my faith in the accuracy of the information broadcast on tv - perhaps that's why i lashed out at you so visciously - sorry about that!

[TahitiNut]

15. Leeches were used on my grandfather's foot.

During the 30's, while working in a Detroit factory, an I-beam slipped from its sling and came down end-first and crushed my grandfather's foot. He received extensive (for the time) medical care. They wanted to amputate the foot but he wouldn't allow it. In those days, they didn't do the kind of reconstruction they do today, so the bones were never adequately reassembled. He lost the second toe. The foot became infected and gangrene set in. In order to remove the infection, medicinal leeches were used. They saved the foot.

For the rest of his life, the foot troubled him. I vividly recall seeing him, at the end of a day at work (either at the factory or in his yard), sitting in his chair and 'cracking' his white-stocking-clad foot to maintain some flexibility and circulation.

[Cronus Protagonist]

17. French leeches!

I hope they don't speak like the Frogs....


http://brainbuttons.com - Fair and balanced, yet insulting buttons.

[mike1963]

18. Uh, one of my closest friends is a doctor and he says they actually are

effective. Some kind of enzyme they excrete is beneficial. I believe him although I'm not so sure I'd be comfortable having one attached to my bod, but...hey, we're all here despite the perceived horrible state of medicine for all the centuries prior to this one.

[jmowreader]

22. If a frozen fry can be "fresh produce"...

I guess a live animal can be a "device."

When a leech bites you, it has to inject a blood thinner so that it can eat, and it turns out that the leech spit has therapeutic value in humans.

Sounds creepy, but no more so than...oh, a shot in the penis or something.

[hightime]

23. The main use of the leeches is to remove pooling blood.

It has to do with the arteries working but not the veins.

The rationale behind the use of leeches in surgical procedures is fairly straightforward; nonetheless, it is subject to misunderstanding, even by clinicians. The key to success is the exploitation of a unique property of the leech bite, namely, the creation of a puncture wound that bleeds literally for hours. The leech's saliva contains substances that anaesthetise the wound area, dilate the blood vessels to increase blood flow, and prevent the blood from clotting.

Microsurgeons today are adept at reattaching severed body parts, such as fingers. They usually have little trouble attaching the two ends of the arteries, because arteries are thick-walled and relatively easy to suture. The veins, however, are thin-walled and especially difficult to suture, particularly if the tissue is badly damaged. All too often the surgeon can get blood to flow in the reattached arteries but not veins. With the venous circulation severely compromised, the blood going to the reattached finger becomes congested, or stagnant; the reattached portion turns blue and lifeless and is at serious risk of being lost. It is precisely in such cases that leeches are summoned.

http://www.biopharm-leeches.com/

[Philostopher]

24. Also used in ear reattachment surgeries

I remember seeing something about this a couple of years ago:

http://www.emedicine.com/plastic/topic213.htm

Run a text search for 'leech' and you'll see some explanation about when and why they're used.

It's for very specific applications, to cut down on clotting in places of low blood flow, like the very thin skin on the ears -- so little blood naturally flows to the ears anyway, even a minor restriction of the blood flow can ruin a reattachment.

[Berserker]

26. Medical Leeches

are caught in ponds along with fishing leeches and are not raised in sterile conditions. Medical leeches produce an anticoagulant which helps wounds heal. They can only be found a few months of the year and are not easy to obtain and bring a very good price.

[LibLabUK]

48. Leech farms.

http://www.biopharm-leeches.com/

Leeches are farmed, all year round.

[drscm]

27. I hope none of those leaches smoke pot. eom

eom

[peekaloo]

30. imagine all those pharmaceutical reps converging on medical

buildings pimping their newest products!

If your leech continues to suck longer than 4 hours please see a doctor. :crazy:

[Dirty Hippie]

31. They used leeches on my son

unfortunately he lost the skin graph anyway. I have to say it was pretty weird seeing a leech suck on his graph. But I didn't care, I just wanted the graph to take.

You can learn more (as I did) at

http://www.leechesusa.com/leechesusa/

BTW: He is having the graph redone in a couple of weeks. Hopefully this time it will take.

[mike1963]

32. Woah...best wishes for your son. Was he burned? I hope it turns out OK!

hugs
uh, it's 'graft'

[Dirty Hippie]

33. My son tried to commit suicide

It was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. I've been thinking about writing about it on DU for the benefit of others but after 11 months I still cannot bring myself to divulge the details.

I will say he is grateful to be alive. Our journey has just begun, I've lost count of the number of surgeries he has had.

BTW: You are correct, it is graft. I'm just not "with it" right now.

[shanti]

34. i'm so sorry to hear that

you must be in a lot of pain....my prayers go out to you and your family.

[fortyfeetunder]

36. Whew, I thought Enron was being revived.

OTOH, that does bring a bad name to leeches....

[kungfugrip]

37. Have we gone back to medieval times completely?

eom

[skooooo]

40. Just because they used them during medieval times..

...doesn't mean the practice is completely useless!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

42. Hey! I don't want Halliburton doing my treatment! (nt)

[Malva Zebrina]

43. I was thinking

if this catches on, maybe a good business to start up would be a leech farm. You know, like people raise worms for fishing and stuff Couldn't be very expensive at all to start up. <;-)>

[LibLabUK]

47. Hehe..

It's maintaining the aseptic environment that's gonna hit you in the wallet. Same goes for the maggots they use to debride wounds.. gotta ensure that the things are free from bugs, otherwise that opens up a whole can of worms and could put a real fly in the ointment.

[Malva Zebrina]

53. My husband, before he was my husband

broke his ankle when he fell off a ladder. He had surgery to fix it, with some bone replacement that was borrowed from his hip.

One day, he decided to sit on his deck and expose this ankle wound to the sun. He fell asleep.

Later, in the middle of the night, he was awakened by severe pain in the ankle area.

He removed the dressing and there were multitudes of little maggots crawling all over the wound. A fly , most likely, landed on the wound and laid it's eggs there.

He went to the ER where they removed the maggots by spraying with ether. He was admitted for a day or two, while IV's were run, and was known throught the floor as the "maggot man"

True story.

[Cerridwen]

44. It is so fun . . .

to watch the AMA and scientific communities back track on their decades (centuries?) old arguments about primitive cures and practices. Arguments once used to justify their own existence.

:bounce:

[FlaGranny]

45. Have you heard about

honey? It has been used for many thousands of years and is more effective than antibiotic cream on infected wounds. I've tried it and it works - the medicinal kind (manuka honey), although there are probably many other kinds as good or better.

Many people eat honey without ever realizing how it is made. ;-)

[hightime]

46. The primitive uses of leeches were for "bleedings".

Not to aid in surgical reattachment. In that sense, it was quackery.

[lil-petunia]

49. Paul Wolfowicz is an approved medical device?

Who would a thunk it?

[Cerridwen]

51. Not quackery then . . . or now . . .

Just a couple of sites I found quickly. Many more to view.


From Collect Medical Antiques

http://www.collectmedicalantiques.com/bloodletting2.html

"Bloodletting - It's Good for You!

One of the reasons that the practice of bleeding continued for so long is that this procedure actually is beneficial in some circumstances, including the fluid overload of heart failure. . . Indications for bloodletting were outlined by Joseph Pancoast in "A Treatise on Operative Surgery" (1844):

The opening of the superficial vessels for the purpose of extracting blood constitutes one of the most common operations of the practitioner. The principal results, which we effect by it, are 1st. The diminution of the mass of the blood, by which the overloaded capillary or larger vessels of some affected part may be relieved; 2. The modification of the force and frequency of the heart's action; 3. A change in the composition of the blood, rendering it less stimulating; the proportion of serum becoming increased after bleeding, in consequence of its being reproduced with greater facility than the other elements of the blood; 4. The production of syncope, for the purpose of effecting a sudden general relaxation of the system; and, 5. The derivation, or drawing as it is alleged, of the force of the circulation from some of the internal organs, towards the open outlet of the superficial vessel. These indications may be fulfilled by opening either a vein or an artery."



The University of Kentucky

http://www.uky.edu/Agriculture/Entomology/entfacts/misc/ef013.htm

"used to reduce blood volume or control bleeding in some patients."

[Buns_of_Fire]

52. Theodoric of York is suitably impressed

that modern medicine has finally caught up with his techniques and has acknowledged the magic of leech spit. :-)

[yellowcanine]

54. That Sucks! Sorry, couldn't help myself. But it made me feel good so I

guess it is ok. Right, Dick Chaney?