Leech Therapy

Leech therapy, or hirudotherapy, is the medicinal application of leeches, most often the species Hirudo medicinalis, whose saliva has anesthetic, anti-inflammatory, and blood-thinning effects. First recorded in ancient Egypt roughly 3,500 years ago and central to medieval humoral bloodletting practice, it fell out of mainstream use before returning to surgery in the 1970s, where it is used today mainly to relieve venous congestion after reconstructive microsurgery such as finger reattachment and facial reconstruction; the U.S. Food and Drug Administration classified medicinal leeches as a medical device in 2004.