Hirudo Therapy
Hirudo Therapy, also known as leech therapy, is a treatment method used to treat diseases using medical leeches.
Leeches have been used therapeutically throughout history, but their use has declined as time progressed and pharmacotherapy became more widespread. In recent scientific studies, the detection of many biologically and pharmacologically effective bioactive substances in the secretion that leeches give to the tissue they bite during blood sucking has brought this method back to the agenda in addition to conventional treatment.
Leeches are blood-sucking animals classified in the ringworm group with over 15,000 members. They are worms without exoskeletons and grow up to 12 cm in length. At rest, they can shrink to about a third of this length. Both ends have suckers that are used to attach to tissue as it feeds. At its anterior end is the mouth with more than 300 teeth in three jaws. These pegs leave a Y-shaped bite in their burrows. Feeding is stimulated by the proximity of mammalian body temperature and the detection of sodium and arginine in the blood. When a leech attaches to a host, it can take up to 10 times its body weight, in about 10–60 minutes, 5–15 ml of blood before cutting itself off. Medical leeches; It is in the phylum Annelida, class Clitellata and subclass Hirudinea. Of the more than 800 Hirudinea members in the world, there are only 15 species used for medicinal purposes. Hirudo Medicinalis is abundant in freshwater systems in Europe and North America. There are 3 of these leeches in natural habitats in our country.
Records show that the medicinal use of leeches, Hirudo Medicinalis, has its roots in ancient Egypt and Greece, and was the main method of medical bloodletting or "purification". The first written source on the therapeutic use of leeches dates back to the 7th century BC in Egypt. It was found in the 1500s. It is known that Hippocrates received the leech therapy, which he did in Ancient Greece, from the Ancient Egyptians. However, excavations show us that leeches were used for therapeutic purposes in almost all parts of the world, from Mesopotamians to Aztecs and Mayans, from ancient times to the present. We see in the sources that this treatment was also used in the Roman period and was also applied by the Roman philosopher Galen. Likewise, Avicenna (Avicenna) by M.S. We see that he used leeches in his treatments, as he stated in his work called 'El Kanun Fi't-Tıbb' in 1020. Sources show us that this treatment was also popular in the Middle Ages.
Leeches, which are used for therapeutic purposes in the sense of modern scientific studies, were first named Hirudo Medicinalis by Linnaeus in 1758. Britain used 42 million leeches a year for medical bloodletting during the Victorian era, creating an industry worth £1 million a year in the 19th century. At the beginning of the 19th century, this method of treatment reached its peak, especially in France and Russia. It is estimated that more than 130 million leeches were used each year in these two countries at that time. The most important development in the acceptance of leech therapy in the understanding of modern medicine was the discovery of a substance that prevents blood clotting in the saliva taken from the leech by Haycraft in 1884.
It has been determined that this bioactive substance called hirudin is an effective anticoagulant. Hirudotherapy, which became popular again as time progressed, was reintroduced in the 1970s as an adjunct to plastic, reconstructive and trauma surgery. The development of microsurgery has made it possible for surgeons to reattach severed blood vessels after traumatic amputation and transplant skin flaps. However, venous occlusion and drainage of blood from the tissue have often caused these procedures to fail. Without removing the blockage, the blood clots regroup, creating blood flow to the tissue, which causes tissue death. Leeches take blood from the tissue before coagulation, which prevents venous congestion. This keeps the tissue healthy and perfuses until new vessels grow to maintain venous return. This practice has become such a widespread and successful practice that the Food and Drug Authority of USA-FDA approved the sale of leeches in this country and their use in general purposes, plastic surgery and microsurgery in 2004.
Leech; saliva contains many different substances, including hirudin, calin, anesthetic compounds, and antihistamine vasodilators. Hirudin is a potent anticoagulant that inhibits the conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin and prevents blood clotting. Hirudin works with vasodilator compounds to increase blood flow to an area. At the same time, the anesthetic compounds allow painless ignition. Today, leech therapy is used to treat poor venous drainage, relieve vascular compromised flaps and surgically relocated salvage tissue following traumatic amputation. The success of leech therapy is estimated at 78%.
In the RTM system, Hirudo Therapy takes place in the Regeneration phase. In the treatment triad, it is responsible for cleansing the body and supporting the systems. It is effective on the body body, channel body and electrical body structures. With Hirudo Therapy applications in the RTM system; It is aimed to clean the blood containing heavy metals and free radicals accumulated in the connective tissue of the body, to accelerate the blood circulation, to support the circulatory system, to circulate the "qi" energy in the canal body without any problems with leeches placed on the acupuncture points, and to eliminate the irregularities in the electrical body.