The Technique of Leech Therapy:
Preparation
Application Procedure
Indications for Leech Therapy:
Inflammatory Reactions
Heart
Diseases
Rheumatic Diseases
Tendovaginitis and Tendinitis
Venous Disease and Varicose Veins
Arthrosis
Muscle Tension
Vertebrogenic Pain Syndromes
Contradictions for Leech Therapy:
Hemophilia
Anemia
Erosove Gastritis
Acute Stages of Infectious Disease
Case
history
Where
to buy the medical leeches
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Effect of leech therapy (Hirudo medrctnalis) in different regional pain
syndromes of the human body as for example in painful osteoarthritis of the knee and the thumb as well as painful tennis elbow
T.Rampp
Leech therapy was a mainstay in conventional treatment of pain and inflammatory diseases throughout antiquity until the 20th century. Its use s still widespread in
traditional healing procedures in Asia, Africa, Arabic countries and last but not least in Europe. There is now renewed interest in leeches therapy in the fiefd of complementary medicine. With the exception of its applicantion in plastic surgery to maintain blood flow in congested skin flaps treatment wilh leeches has, however never been evaluated in clinical studies. In a nonrandomizad pilot study we found that 2 single treatment with 4 locally applied leeches rapidly relieved pain from osteoarthntis of the knee. Because of the lack of randomized controlted tials of leech therapy we designed several clinical trials to asses the symptomatic short-term efficacy of leech therapy in different regional pain diseases
Out objectives were among other things to determine the effect of leech therapy as an adjunctive treatment in pain diseases as for example osteoathritis of the knee etc to investigate the onset of action to evaluale patients acceptance of this treatment and to investigate the side effects of the procedure. In our trials topically applied diclofenac was chosen as a control therapy to compare two different types of local treatment In our randomized, controlled trials patients with different regional pain syndromes who were treated with leech therapy experienced clinicaliy significant improvements in self-perceptions of pain and function for a limited period.
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