Medieval Medicine Gets Modern
Hospitals may soon be losing one of their oldest and trustiest tools: the medicinal leech.
Once used to treat everything from consumption to cancer, leech therapy has, in recent decades, been discredited as superstitious quackery. Modern doctors use leeches for the single purpose of relieving venous congestion - clotting that can occur within blood vessels after reconstructive surgery. Now, an invention from a team of UW researchers may take that last job away from the parasites.
"In the case of the leech in medicine," says Nadine Connor PhD'97, one of the scientists, "we think we can improve on nature. We believe a mechanical device can be more effective" than a leech in removing clots and improving circulation.
Blood flow becomes a vital concern after surgeries such as the reattachment of a finger or a toe. Damaged veins where the digit was severed are prone to suffer clots, and if no blood reaches the reattached digit, it will become gangrenous.
Once used to treat everything from consumption to cancer, leech therapy has, in recent decades, been discredited as superstitious quackery. Modern doctors use leeches for the single purpose of relieving venous congestion - clotting that can occur within blood vessels after reconstructive surgery. Now, an invention from a team of UW researchers may take that last job away from the parasites.
"In the case of the leech in medicine," says Nadine Connor PhD'97, one of the scientists, "we think we can improve on nature. We believe a mechanical device can be more effective" than a leech in removing clots and improving circulation.
Blood flow becomes a vital concern after surgeries such as the reattachment of a finger or a toe. Damaged veins where the digit was severed are prone to suffer clots, and if no blood reaches the reattached digit, it will become gangrenous.
Leeches - the real variety - can prevent clotting through their method of feeding. When a leech bites into its host, it doesn't just suck out a meal of tasty blood. It also injects the host with a mild anesthetic and an anticoagulant. Though a leech feeds for only thirty minutes or so, the anticoagulant goes on working for hours afterward, ensuring that blood continues to flow freely through the host's veins.
But leeches also make most patients squeamish. "People don't want this disgusting organism hanging on their body," says Connor. "This added stress for both patient and family members compounds an already difficult situation."
And so Connor and her colleagues, Gregory Hartig at the UW and Michael Conforti DVM'97 of Madison's William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Administration Hospital, schemed to create a machine that can do the parasite's work more efficiently. The mechanical leech can remain attached to a patient for longer periods, removing more blood and injecting more anticoagulant.
"There is a big difference between what a real leech can do and what our mechanical leech can do," says Conforti.
But leeches also make most patients squeamish. "People don't want this disgusting organism hanging on their body," says Connor. "This added stress for both patient and family members compounds an already difficult situation."
And so Connor and her colleagues, Gregory Hartig at the UW and Michael Conforti DVM'97 of Madison's William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Administration Hospital, schemed to create a machine that can do the parasite's work more efficiently. The mechanical leech can remain attached to a patient for longer periods, removing more blood and injecting more anticoagulant.
"There is a big difference between what a real leech can do and what our mechanical leech can do," says Conforti.
