An overview of leech and its therapeutic applications
| Autor: | Parimannan Sivachandran, Rajandas Heera, Pattabhiraman Lalitha, Manickam Ravichandran, Shalini Sivadasan, Kasi Marimuthu |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2015 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Coastal Life Medicine, Vol 3, Iss 5, Pp 405-413 (2015) |
| ISSN: | 2309-6152 2309-5288 |
| Popis: | Hirudotherapy has a broad spectrum of therapeutic application in the medical field ranging from cardiology, gynaecology, ophthalmology, plastic and reconstructive surgeries. In medieval and early modern medicine, leeches were used to remove blood from patients in an attempt to balance the biological humours. Leeches are widely used to treat venous congestion in microvascular replantation, free and conventional flap surgery and traumatology. Recently, Food and Drug Administration has approved the usage of live leeches as medical device for therapeutic applications. Presently, some of the leech species have declined dramatically in its population due to the over utilization of leech for medicinal purposes and also due to pollution in several parts of the world particularly in European and Asian countries. This review presents an overview of leech including the history, biology, classification, and its application as medical device. Further, it also covers the controversies and misconception related to leech species identification and complications of post hirudotherapy. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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