Mechanisms of Maggot-Induced Wound Healing: What Do We Know, and Where Do We Go from Here?
Table 2
Wound Healing results associated with selected published maggot therapy studies.
Pressure ulcer study1
Diabetic ulcer study2
Conventional therapy
MDT
Conventional therapy
MDT
Quality of wound base
Initial granulation tissue as % of total area
31%
27%
18
19
Granulation tissue at 4
29%
69%
15
56
Percentage of wounds developing ≥ 50% granulation tissue
18
51
Weeks until granulation tissue reached > 50%
4.7
2.1
Change in % of granulation tissue per week*
3.30%
13%
Wound size and healing
Initial surface area in sq cm*
14
22.1
6.3
13.3
Change in surface area during treatment
6.3
−7.3
5
−3.8
Change in surface area per
1.4
−1.5
1.15
−0.78
Percentage of wounds which decreased in size within 4 weeks*
44%
79%
Healing rate at 4
−0.038
0.101
−0.08
0.08
Healing rate at 8
−0.027
0.096
−0.02
0.07
Percentage of wounds completely healed
21%
39%
21
36
Average time to complete healing (weeks)
13.4
12
18
15
Sherman, 2002 [18] (*identifies significantly different results between the two arms of this study); Sherman, 2003 [19] (+identifies significantly different results between the two arms of this study). The wound healing rate, based on studies by Gilman [69] and Margolis et al. [70], was defined as the change in surface area divided by the mean circumference over time. Study details provided in text.