TOP 10

SOMETIMES , EVEN IN medicine , it ’ s best to stick with what works . While there is always innovation in the healthcare industry , there are certain practices that doctors hold on to simply because they work . Here are the ten oldest medical practices that doctors are still using today .

For thousands of years , human beings have used heat in the form of cautery to treat trauma and disease . Dr . William T . Bovie improved on this method in 1920 with the invention of electrosurgery , which uses an electrical current instead of heat to cut tissue or coagulate blood and stop bleeding . The Bovine unit passes high frequency alternating current into the body allowing the current to cut or coagulate . After 75 years this basic device remains a fundamental tool in the practice of surgery .

Since ancient times , physicians have used maggots to help clean injuries and prevent infection . Because maggots feed solely on dead flesh , doctors do not need to worry about them feasting on healthy tissue . One study , published in 2014 in the Archives of Dermatology , showed that maggots placed on surgical incisions helped to clear more dead tissue from the sites than surgical debridement , the current standard of care in which doctors use a scalpel or scissors . Placed in tea bag-like packages , physicians are able to directly apply maggots to wounds , allowing them to work their magic .

20 June 2015