TAKE TWO LEECHES AND CALL ME IN THE MORNING

After centuries of neglect, flesh-eating maggots and blood-sucking leeches have made a comeback in modern medicine, and are now being used so frequently by high-tech surgeons that the Food and Drug Administration has compiled a federal board of medical advisors to discuss how to regulate them. It turns out that microsurgeons resurrected the use fo maggots and leeches in the late 1970’s due to their very unique skills which medical technology cannot match. Leeches, for example, are excellent at draining excess blood from surgically reattached or transplanted appendages, and maggots are unparalleled in their ability to clean festering, gangrenous wounds which is indespensible for patients (such as diabetics) whose wounds fail to heal. The two-day conference will submit guidelines to the FDA which will regulate how to safely grow, transport and sell leeches and maggots to surgeons throughout the U.S. (New York Times)