抄録
This paper reports cutaneous myiasis on a skin cancer of a 90-year-old patient living in a nursing home for the aged in Tochigi city, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. On 21 April 2001, the nurse in charge of the patient noticed oozing from a cancer lesion on the cheek of the patient. When she removed the gauze covering the lesion, she found wriggling, milky white maggots in the lesion. Thirty-four larvae were collected from the lesion. Author S. S. identified the emerged adult flies as Lucilia sericata (Meigen) (Japanese name: Hirozu-kinbae). In traditional medical practice, the larvae of some calliphorid flies, notably L. illustris, L. sericata, and Phormia regina, have been used to clean lesions antiseptically (maggot therapy), especially in the treatment of chronic osteomyelitis. This mode of treatment remains appropriate for cases where antibiotics are ineffective and surgery is impracticable. Similar treatment happened unintentionally in this case. The decrease in the size, cleanness of the skin cancer and elimination of odor in the present case may be due to some beneficial effects of this maggot therapy.
