Final answer:
Maggots are used in medicine due to their ability to eat only dead tissue, thus cleaning wounds and preventing infection. With FDA approval, maggots are currently employed in some hospitals as a prescription medical device for wound care, particularly for wounds that are difficult to heal.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Purpose of Using Maggots in Medicine
The characteristic of maggots that makes them useful in medicine is their ability to consume only dead tissue. When placed on necrotic flesh, maggots clean the wound. This helps in preventing the spread of infection and facilitating the healing process. In the past, this property of maggots was employed to prevent or stop gangrene, which is an infection that results from the death of tissue.
In modern medicine, with FDA approval, medical maggots are considered a prescription medical device. They represent the first living organism to receive such classification for use in wound care. Hospitals that still use maggot therapy apply these creatures to non-healing wounds, such as those seen in diabetes or pressure sores, using them as a debridement agent to clean out the necrotic tissue without harming living tissue.