A Japanese heart surgeon is successfully treating diabetics via a method once used by Australian aborigines and Native Americans -- maggot therapy.
Hideya Mitsui of Okayama University Hospital has been applying the creatures to skin wounds that won't heal and would otherwise lead to amputation following the onset of gangrene.
The traditional cure has proved far more effective than modern medical therapy. The sterile Australian maggots that are used in Japan are four or five days old after hatching from black fly eggs.
Mitsui has used maggots since last March on several patients who faced foot amputation. The patients ended up keeping their feet and their lesions have healed well.