Maggot therapy may qualify for insurance

NEW YORK - In the 2000 film "Gladiator," the main character Maximus, played by Russell Crowe, is cut and bruised. He had some wounds that were looking pretty nasty. One of the other enslaved fighter treats his shoulder by placing maggots in the wound. A few days later the wound looks better and our hero is on his way to glory in the fighting circle. (See the clip below)

Treating open wounds with maggots has been done is some form since before the time of the Roman Empire. Recently though maggot therapy has received backing from the modern American medical establishment and that could make it easier for patients and doctors to get insurance reimbursement for this treatment.

Last week the American Medical Association and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services allowed for maggot therapy in its reimbursement guidelines. The CMMS lists maggot therapy under Debridement:

"Maggot debridement therapy (MDT)" or medicinal maggots refers to a type of sterile intentional biological larval or biosurgical debridement that uses disinfected (sterile) maggots to clean wounds by dissolving the dead and infected tissue and by killing bacteria."

Maggots perform three main actions in the healing of wounds:
* debride wounds by dissolving infected tissue;
* disinfect the wound by killing bacteria; and
* stimulate wound healing.