How does Leech Therapy Promote Healing and Recovery of Patients who have Undergone Skin Grafting?
As soon as the leeches attach themselves to the skin graft site, they begin to suck blood. While sucking, they also release a component called hirudin from their saliva. This component is very important in the inhibition of platelet aggregation (the process where the platelets clump or stick together) and coagulation cascade (a series of processes that ends with fibrin clot formation). If these two detrimental complications are present in a skin graft, there will be marked venous congestion, which slows down the healing process of the skin graft. When the skin graft receives poor circulation, the site becomes cyanotic [a condition in which the skin and mucous membranes take on a bluish colour because there is not enough oxygen in the blood], then it hardens and cools until the transplanted tissue dies. Now, because of the hirudin and the Factor Xa inhibitor present in the leechs saliva, these processes are inhibited. Since there is a vasodilator component in their saliva too, venous co
