It is the use of living organisms in medical treatments. Although there are indications that the Maya, in Central America, and the Australian aborigines were pioneers of biotherapy, the first official record is the application of larvae in wounds of soldiers from the 1st World War (1914).
In 1927, surgeon William Baer brought larval therapy to the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore (USA). With the development of antibiotics in the 1940s, the practice was no longer used by medicine. Until the appearance of resistant bacteria caused the technique to be used again in the USA, Israel and in some European countries as a way of treating wounds in diabetic patients, burns, tumors, etc.
HEALING PETS
Discover the main biotherapeutic treatments
eating dirt
Animal: Blowfly larvae (Calliphoridae).
Treatment: Wounds and burns.
It is the oldest and most famous biotherapy technique, used by Indians and soldiers. Newly hatched larvae are sterilized and applied to wounds to speed up the healing process. They feed on dead (necrified) tissue and destroy bacteria while preserving living tissue. They are mainly used when the patient’s body cannot clean the wounds of the body itself.
* Ten to 15 larvae are used per cubic centimeter of the wound, which must be removed in a maximum of three days.
good vampire
Animal: Leech (Hirudo medicinalis).
Treatment: Hematoma from plastic surgery.
It began to be used more than 2,500 years ago in India. Diseases were believed to be caused by pooling blood, which was cured by bloodletting. As the leech sucks blood without causing pain, the treatment became popular. The technique was abandoned in the 20th century for not having proven efficacy, but it has returned to the fore in the US and Europe, where it is used in the postoperative period, reestablishing blood circulation in the reconstituted tissues.
*In the 19th century, hospitals in Paris used up to six million leeches to remove 300,000 liters of blood a year from patients.
holy poison
animal: Honey bees.
Treatment: Rheumatism, arthritis, skin infections and eye diseases.
Apipuncture uses bee venom, which has an anti-inflammatory function. The liquid is collected for the production of ointments and injectable solutions. There is also a more radical treatment, in which the patient is stung by several bees in the infected area. The treatment is not scientifically proven, but it is already being tried against cases of multiple sclerosis in Cuba.
Sources: Arício Xavier Linhares, entomologist and parasitologist at Unicamp; Fernanda Leme Silva Bastos Varzim and Maria Lúcia Marcucci Torres, veterinarians and professors at the Octávio Bastos Teaching Foundation, in São João da Boa Vista, SP.