Essay - Leeches: Bloodsuckers, Life-and-limb-savers Abstract. 'Nothing Works as Well as Leeches...

LEECHES: Bloodsuckers, Life-and-Limb-Savers

Abstract. "Nothing works as well as leeches when we need to get blood out of a (body) part."

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Blood clotting is a life-saving ***** process, but when it endangers life or prevents the resolution ***** a *****rn tissue, leeches can come in handy. They have shown their worth as natural blood thinners, painkillers and surgical scavengers with the anticoagulant ***** anes*****tic properties of their saliva. These saliva components hold much promise for the "treatment of cardiological and hematological disorders" (Sohn)

These squirmy bloodsuckers, which *****ly occurred in ponds in the Medieval period, *****re used as a panacea ***** a variety of diseases and disorders in early times. Surgeons and barbers employed these worms in bloodlett*****g, believing that removing some of the blood in an affected part would cure it. It remained useful until the coming ***** modern medicine, ***** discarded it, until its reappearance in ***** last century as a vers*****tile natural waste disposal surgical tool.

Today, the Hirudo Medicinalis species of leech is a reliable last resort when something ***** needed to overcome ***** clotting mechanism, ***** that thins the ***** or decongest clots.

Using its two suckers to feed and to hang itself, the leech secretes Hirudin, an anti-coagulant ***** anes*****tic, while it sucks blood from the host. When it has sucked enough, ***** just falls *****f ***** the ***** and leaves blood oozing fresh from its bite wound.

***** ***** to decongest clots and to keep the blood from clotting at a ***** long enough ***** let the surgeon do his work on the patient. It is specifically ***** in trauma management and surgery, such as in re-attaching severed body *****s or in rec*****struct*****g a burned t*****sue (Polsdorfer). In general, it is of benef***** to all procedures involving venous insufficiency, re-plantation surgery (where artery input ***** be established ***** not venous drainage), scalp avulsions, periorbital hematomas, heart diseases and breast surgery. Each adult leech can take in up to 15 ml of congested blood and ***** scavenge for half an hour. The number of leeches needed for a particular case depends on the response of ***** congestion ***** the leech.

***** leeches can be bought at very minimal price ***** a UK distributor and then kept in an aquarium with special feeds ***** 18 months without a second feed*****g. Those which have been used should first be sedated with alcohol and ***** burned in an incinerator to prevent spreading the medical waste they absor*****d.

There have been a few reports on complicati*****s, ***** as meningitis, excessive blood flow, getting lost into the body openings, allergies *****d psychological reactions. These, however, are readily manageable and do not outweigh the benefits of the Therapy.

*****troduction. T***** species of parasites is proving to be an asset to man. Three cases of class 2V ring finger avulsion injuries (Sparkes et al 1996), a nine-year-old boy's ear, ruthlessly bitten and torn by a D*****matian, and the lives and limbs of o*****r *****s from 29 different countries have been