Here - EWMA 2013

FREE PAPER SESSION: ANTIMICROBAL AND OTHERS
Free Paper Session: Antimicrobal and Others
118
A RANDOMISED CONTROLLED TRIAL OF LARVAL THERAPY FOR THE
DEBRIDEMENT OF LEG ULCERS
Elizabeth Mudge 1 , Patricia Price 1 , Keith Harding 1
1 Cardiff University (Cardiff, United Kingdom).
Aim: To compare the clinical effectiveness of a larval therapy dressing with a hydrogel in
terms of time to debridement of venous (VLU) or mixed (MLU) leg ulcers.
Method: Phase 2, multicentre, randomised, controlled, open, observer blind, parallel
group study.
Results: Data analyses were conducted on 88 subjects, 42 (48%) ulcers were fully
debrided within the 21-day intervention phase, 31 (67.4%) from the larvae arm (n = 46)
and 11 (26.2%) from the hydrogel arm (n = 42) which was significant (p = 0.001) in
support of larvae. Reappearance of slough or necrotic tissue within 7-14 days after
completion of the study occurred in 40.5% of ulcers which was significant (p = 0.011),
indicating that more ulcers in the hydrogel arm had not resloughed. A significant
difference was observed in the numbers of dressing changes (p = 0.001); subjects in the
larvae arm required significantly less dressing changes (mean = 2.83) than those in the
hydrogel arm (mean = 5.40). There were no significant differences in clinical condition of
the wound bed and surrounding skin by intervention, however, incidence of infection
were higher for hydrogel (28.6%) compared to larvae (6.5%) although subjects using
larvae experienced more ulcer related pain or discomfort (p