Title: Larval therapy-efficient treatment of all kinds of wounds

Biography:

Aneta Zymon is a nurse, wound specialist and the founder and CEO of AZ MED, Pain and Wound Treatment Centre in Krakow, Poland. There, she manages an interdisciplinary team that deals with the treatment of chronic pain and wounds. Aneta promotes natural wound healing using Lucilia Sericata larvae. She is guided by a holistic approach and loads of empathy towards her patients. In 2014, Aneta decided to take a chance and go out on a limb. She quit her job and put all her savings into AZ MED. She hired two scientists from the Jagiellonian University and created a small laboratory in Krakow.

Abstract

In the 1990s, when the crisis in antibiotic therapy was observed, the medical community began to return to the methods known and popularized by folk medicine - larval therapy. For a long time, it was believed that the main task of maggots is to mechanically clean the wound of a dead tissue. Nevertheless, today we know that larvae dressing, as the only one, affects all stages of wound healing - the popular TIME. In all types of wounds, the use of larvae dressings significantly reduces the time until the wound heals completely. It is the comfort and quality of a patient's life; it is also a pure economy. Considering the advantages of larval therapy, one must also mention the problems with its application. Sadly, difficulties with an access to dressings, specific and demanding care conditions, unpleasant feelings of both patients and staff cause that this therapy is still not very popular. Following the statement that” It is not important what one puts on a wound, but what one removes from it”, presenting the time and effects of wound healing, determining the indications for the use of dressings in a closed or open form, I highly recommend this method as the most and extremely effective.