Maggot Debridement Therapy (MDT) is the medical use of live maggots (fly larvae) for cleaning non-healing wounds.

Medicinal maggots have three actions: 1) they debride (clean) wounds by dissolving the dead (necrotic), infected tissue; 2) they disinfect the wound, by killing bacteria; and 3) they stimulate wound healing.

Historically, maggots have been known for centuries to help heal wounds. Many military surgeons noted that soldiers whose wounds became infested with maggots did better --- and had a much lower mortality rate --- than did soldiers with similar wounds not infested. William Baer, at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, was the first physician (an orthopedic surgeon, actually) in the U.S. to actively promote maggot therapy; his results were published posthumously by his colleagues in 1932.


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