Study: Homeopathy not effective in treating anything

[sir pball]

44. Ah, they're doing fine on the business of the transplant surgeons...

Homeopathy is unqualified quackery, but there's definitely areas where some traditional/alternative therapies are entirely legit..

Long dismissed as quackery, the use of leeches has returned to the medical mainstream over the past 20 years. Plastic and reconstructive surgeons depend on leeches, predominantly Hirudo medicinalis, to drain excess blood and prevent clotting after operations to reattach severed fingers, lips, ears, or other body parts. Surgeons may also turn to leeches after they transplant a flap of skin from one part of the body to another, as in Rambo’s case, or perform other kinds of plastic surgery. Without leeching, blood clots often kill the repaired or transplanted tissue.

Leeches provide other benefits as well. Scientists are working to harvest the bounty of chemicals synthesized by these cousins of the common earthworm. One leech-made molecule, the powerful anticoagulant hirudin, won FDA approval in 1998. Medical researchers are now testing hirudin’s usefulness against angina and heart attacks, and other chemicals from leech saliva are under study.
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Surgeons worked out a method for stitching bisected arteries and veins together under a microscope, thus making it possible to reattach severed tissues and to transplant skin flaps. However, many of these operations failed because of a problem called venous congestion, inadequate blood drainage from the reattached or transplanted tissue. It is fairly easy to rejoin severed arteries that carry blood into the finger, says plastic surgeon Jeffrey Friedman of Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine, but it is difficult to find and reconnect the veins that drain blood from the finger. As a result, even the most skilled and careful surgeon may not be able to link all the veins, and blood will begin to pool within the finger. Unless this buildup is relieved, clots may form and cut off blood flow into the finger, eventually killing it. Swelling and a blue or purple color signal venous congestion. When these symptoms appear, leeches slither to the rescue. (For several graphic examples, visit Leeches USA.)

Serving as a substitute vein, a leech draws off blood before it can coagulate, thus keeping the tissue alive until new veins grow—usually within 5–6 days. Over the years, doctors have unsuccessfully tried a host of seemingly more advanced treatments to achieve the same thing, from blood thinners like heparin to slicing the skin to promote bleeding. “Nothing is as effective as a leech,” says Donald Mackay of Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine who has been prescribing leeches since 1988.

http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/archive/tcaw/10/i10/html/10health.html

And the maggots...