Citation: Egypt. Acad. J. Biolog. Sci. (E-Medical Entom. & Parasitology Vol.12(2) pp 1-10(2020) Egypt. Acad. J. Biolog. Sci., 12 (2):1 – 10 (2020) Egyptian Academic Journal of Biological Sciences E. Medical Entom. & Parasitology ISSN: 2090 – 0783 www.eajbse.journals.ekb.eg Maggot Therapy “Use of Fly Larvae for Treatment of Wounds”- A Review Mohamed A. Kenawy 1* and Yousrya M. Abdel-Hamid 2 1- Department of Entomology, Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University, Abbassia, Cairo 11566, Egypt 2- Research Institute of Medical Entomology, The General Organization for Institutes and Teaching Hospitals, Ministry of Health, Dokki, Giza, Egypt. E-mail: mohamedkenawy@sci.asu.edu.eg, mohamedkenawy330@gmail.com REVIEW INFO ABSTRACT Review History Received:16/5/2020 Accepted:26/7/2020 _________________ Keywords: Maggot therapy, Maggot debridement therapy, MT, MDT, Wound debridement, Lucilia sericata. Several chronic wounds require alternative therapy in addition to the conventional ones. Maggot therapy (MT) is one of these alternatives. MT is one form of animal-based treatment options known as Biotherapy (medicinal use of live organisms). MT or Maggot debridement therapy (MDT) is the medical use of live maggots for cleaning chronic, non- healing wounds or certain wounds that are not amenable to other forms of therapy. MT is achieved through maggots' secretion of proteolytic enzymes that liquefy the necrotic tissues and then feed on such tissues (wound debridement activity), wound disinfection (antimicrobial) activity and growth-promoting (wound healing) activity. MT has been used for centuries. Occasionally used since the 1930’s and early 1940’s and then in 2004, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved maggots as a medical device that has been prescribed for patients in more than 200 hospitals in the United States. This article presents a review of published articles on the different aspects of MT (mainly the past and current uses, maggots used, how to apply maggots for wound treatments, advantages and disadvantages, problems and adverse reactions and its application in Egypt) that serves as a guide to health professionals who may be users of this form of treatment now and in the future. INTRODUCTION Maggots or fly larvae (Order Diptera) are often highly specialized for living in a wet environment and very few are adapted to dry conditions. A few species are internal parasites of animals or humans. When maggots infest humans or other vertebrates, it is called myiasis. Myiasis is classified based on the type of tissue attacked or the site of infestation (Hosni et al., 2019). Flies causing myiasis are either obligate parasites that develop only on live hosts or facultative parasites that develop on either live hosts or carrion (Zumpt, 1965 and Hall and Wall, 1995). The naturally-occurring myiasis can be beneficial, but sometimes it can be harmful, depending upon the type of maggots and the circumstances surrounding the infestation. The known beneficial applications of myiasis are: (1) the use of maggots that feed on human corpses to give an indication of the time that elapsed since death, as well as the place of death “Forensic Entomology” or the legal use of such maggots to help solve crimes (Byrd and Castner, 2010)) and (2) for treatment of wounds “Maggot therapy (Bonn, 2000 and Thomas, 2003).