Volunteers needed to test modern use for traditional remedy
Posted on 11 January 2005
Maggots eat dead tissue, thus cleaning the wound. Napoleon's battle surgeon knew it and medical orderlies from the American Civil War to the trenches of the Western Front discovered it.
Maggots were still used by doctors in the 1920s and 1930s only to be discarded when the development of antibiotics gathered pace.
But sterile maggots are making a comeback and hundreds of leg ulcer sufferers are now being sought to take part in a £750,000 study, being co-ordinated by the University of York's Department of Health Sciences. The trial will assess the effectiveness of the larva of a species of the greenbottle fly - Lucilla sericata -- in cleaning and healing leg ulcers.
The three-year trial being run in partnership with a number of health trusts across the North, the Midlands and Northern Ireland is the largest clinical study into larval therapy ever mounted. It aims, ultimately, to help to reduce the annual £600 million cost to the NHS of treating leg ulcers which affect one per cent of UK population.
The randomised trial will involve a third of the patients being treated with loose sterile maggots, a third with sterile maggots in a bag while the remainder will be given a standard treatment using hydrogel. The trial called VenUS II will compare the clinical and cost-effectiveness of the two types of larval therapy with the more conventional treatment, as well as the effect on patients' quality of life over 12 months.
Patients will have the chance to take part in an exciting study which will find out whether maggots really do heal ulcers more quickly
Dr Pauline Raynor
Trial Co-ordinator Dr Pauline Raynor said: "Patients will have the chance to take part in an exciting study which will find out whether maggots really do heal ulcers more quickly. We need a total of 600 patients to come forward to take part in this important research.
"Of the people who have volunteered so far, squeamishness does not appear to be an issue at all. There is, however, no guarantee everyone who volunteers will get maggots because a third of patients will be treated more conventionally."
A network of research nurses will be based in the community to co-ordinate the trial and to provide support and guidance to the volunteers.
A freephone number (0800 138 3461) has been set-up for any patients who would like further information about the trial, or how larvae therapy could possibly help them or someone they know.
The NHS Health Technology Assessment programme commissioned the University of York to carry out the trial which will run for a total of three years. The majority of volunteers will be recruited in the community with the remainder in hospitals and clinics.
Notes to editors:
- Trusts currently participating in the trial are, Bolton Primary Care Trust; Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust, Burton Hospitals NHS Trust, Harrogate Health Care NHS Trust, Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust.
- South Leeds PCT, Leeds West PCT, Leeds North West PCT, Leeds North East PCT, East Leeds PCT, Selby and York Primary Care Trust, North Cumbria Acute Hospitals Trust; Middlesbrough Primary Care Trust, South West Oxford PCT, Oxford City PCT, Sherwell PCT, North East PCT and Scarborough, Whitby and Ryedale PCT as well as Altnagelvin Hospitals Health and Social Care Trust, Londonderry and South-East Belfast PCTs in Northern Ireland.
- The University of York's multi-disciplinary Department of Health Sciences offers a broad range of taught and research programmes in the health care field, including nursing and midwifery. It aims to develop the role of evidence in health and health care through high quality research, teaching and other forms of dissemination. Professor Nicky Cullum leads a large programme of wound care research which includes several nationally funded trials of preventative and treatment strategies.
- Journalists / photographers are invited to attend a photocall at the York NHS Walk-in Centre, Monkgate, York at 2pm on Tuesday 11 January, where leg ulcer patient Victor Beeston will undergo larvae therapy treatment. Also in attendance will be Dr Pauline Raynor, from the University of York, and Anne Potter, a research nurse for Selby and York PCT. On arrival, please ask for Mike James.