clinical leeches for venous congestion

Leeches are primitive worms (Hirudo medicinalis) which can be ready with suckers on their back and front ends that allow them feed on blood, and teeth that could make a brief, easy cut, Sherman said.

these characteristics make leaches useful for "bloodletting," a clinical practice that removes blood from the body and dates again to ancient times.

within the twenty first century, the FDA has cleared the usage of scientific leeches for a condition called venous congestion, wherein blood swimming pools in a particular place of the frame and the veins cannot pump it lower back to the heart, Sherman stated. Venous congestion may additionally arise following surgeries to reattach a limb, along with a finger or an ear, for instance, or other foremost surgical reconstructions, together with a breast, he defined.

Leeches can extract a widespread volume of blood from a surgical website online in a brief quantity of time, about forty five mins, which lets in extra oxygen to attain the website online, Sherman stated.

similarly, the saliva from leeches contain materials with anticoagulant properties, meaning they can save you the blood from clotting, he added.

One important danger of leech remedy is anemia, or the loss of too much iron, Sherman said. it is also viable to get an infection at the site where the leeches chunk the person's pores and skin, he explained.