Latching on again

OLD MEDICINE IS NEW: The European medicinal leech, Hirudo medicinalis , an invertebrate 3 cm long in adulthood, was considered indispensable in the 19th century. It was used in ‘blood letting’ and helping alleviate certain conditions. The leech is now making a comeback with plastic surgeons and clinicians ‘also using them only in a last-ditch effort to stave off tissue death or necrosis following reconstructive procedures, including those for cancer’. French hospitals have long been using leeches to prevent blood clots after surgery. Picture shows leeches being placed on a wound of a burn patient at the CHU hospital Pellegrin, in Bordeaux, southwestern France. — PHOTO: REUTERS

OLD MEDICINE IS NEW: The European medicinal leech, Hirudo medicinalis , an invertebrate 3 cm long in adulthood, was considered indispensable in the 19th century. It was used in ‘blood letting’ and helping alleviate certain conditions. The leech is now making a comeback with plastic surgeons relying on them ‘to rescue skin flaps compromised by venous congestion after surgery’. Many clinicians are ‘also using them only in a last-ditch effort to stave off tissue death or necrosis following reconstructive procedures, including those for cancer’. French hospitals have long been using leeches to prevent blood clots after surgery. Picture shows leeches being placed on a wound of a burn patient at the CHU hospital Pellegrin, in Bordeaux, southwestern France. — PHOTO: REUTERS