Delayed wound healing due to extraneous bacterial contamination, antibacterial
resistance and other associated factors are of great concern in dealing patients having
chronically infected wound. Medicinal properties of certain maggots of Calliphoridae family
are known for its effective wound debridement therapy. The objective of the study was to
evaluate the wound healing potential of maggots of Lucilia sericata in an experimentally
infected cutaneous wound model in Wistar rat. The study was carried out by using male
Wistar rats (n=48) by creating excisional wounds and later contaminated with mixed population
of gram positive and gram-negative bacteria. Animals were divided randomly in to four
groups with 12 individuals each, being denominated as control, antibiotic treated, maggot
treated, and antibiotic plus maggot combination treated group. Ten pre-sterilized maggots
were applied per centimetre square wound bed for 24 hours. Different wound kinetics in L.
sericata maggot treated wounds revealed significant reduction in wound area with maximum
contraction, early elimination of bacterial bioburden as compared to group of infected control
and group of rats receiving only antibiotic treatment. The histopathological examination of
wounded tissue of maggot treated groups showed early and better epithelialization,
collagenation and neovascularization with complete healing of wound in two weeks. The
maggot effects on healing when used singly or in combination with antibiotic were recorded
to be similar. The results of the present study clearly demonstrate that the maggots of L.
sericata possesses a definite antibacterial action along with removal of dead tissues and
effectively reduced the bacterial bio-burden in infected wound and induced wound healing
quickly.