How the story changes...

[WhiteTara]

Here is the original story I read last night

Maggots no wonder cure for festering wounds
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE52J09F20090320
LONDON (Reuters) - Putting flesh-eating maggots into open wounds may not be such a great idea after all.
They do clean wounds more quickly than normal treatment but this does not lead to faster healing, results of the world's first controlled clinical trial of maggot medicine showed on Friday.
Some patients also found so-called larval therapy more painful, according to the study in the British Medical Journal.
Gruesome as it sounds, maggots have a long history in medicine. Napoleon's battle surgeon was a maggot enthusiast, and they were put to work during the American Civil War and in the trenches in World War One.

The story has change 180 degrees this morning.

Maggots as Good as Gel in Leg Ulcer Treatments
http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/03/20/maggots-as-good-as-gel-in-leg-ulcer-treatments.html
FRIDAY, March 20 (HealthDay News) -- The use of maggots to treat leg ulcers is similar to standard hydrogel therapy in terms of health benefits and costs, according to British researchers.
Debridement (removal of dead tissue from the ulcer surface) helps promote healing and is a common part of treatment for leg ulcers, chronic wounds most often caused by diseased veins. While a hydrogel is commonly used for debridement, it's been suggested the maggots (larval therapy) debride wounds more quickly, stimulate healing and reduce infection.
In the first randomized controlled trial of larval therapy, researchers studied 267 patients with at least one leg ulcer with dead tissue. The patients were randomly selected to receive either loose larvae, bagged larvae or hydrogel and were monitored for up to one year.
Compared to hydrogel, larval therapy significantly reduced the time to debridement, but there was little difference in time to ulcer healing, health-related quality of life or levels of bacteria.

These aren't the most important stories, but you almost get whiplash from reading different accounts on different days.

[Avalux]

1. Although written from completely different angles, they say the same thing.

Both stories confirm larvae therapy cleans - or debrides - wounds more quickly than standard therapy. Both stories confirm larvae therapy doesn't lead to faster healing.

Reuters' story is negative while the other is positive. Interesting!

[DCKit]

3. Perhaps author #1 went in with a prejudice against dirty, disgusting maggots? n/t

[rrneck]

2. I recall

someone on some news talk show (vague enough?) say that the best way to approach the news media is to treat it like a tapestry.