Gross-Out of the Day

Age-Old Cures, Like the Maggot, Get U.S. Hearing

By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: August 25, 2005

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 - Flesh-eating maggots and bloodsucking leeches, long thought of as the tools of bygone medicine, have experienced a quiet renaissance among high-tech surgeons, and for two days beginning Thursday a federal board of medical advisers will discuss how to regulate them.

Leeches, it turns out, are particularly good at draining excess blood from surgically reattached or transplanted appendages. As microsurgeons tackle feats like reattaching hands, scalps and even faces, leeches have become indispensable.