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. 2025 Jan;22(1):e70100.
doi: 10.1111/iwj.70100.

Expanding access to maggot containment dressings through redesign and innovation

Ronald Arlen Sherman  1 , Frank Stadler  2
Affiliations

Expanding access to maggot containment dressings through redesign and innovation

Ronald Arlen Sherman et al. Int Wound J. 2025 Jan.

Abstract

There are two major styles of maggot debridement dressings: (1) confinement dressings that form a cage around the wound, and (2) containment dressings that completely surround the maggots within a sealed porous bag. For producers and clinicians wanting to prepare containment dressings using readily available polyester bags, it is currently difficult to seal these bags without expensive high-temperature plastic welders. This study aimed to identify simple and affordable methods for sealing maggots within polyester net bags. Heat sealing was the most effective and simplest method to seal the polyester net bags, but the high melting point of polyester required industrial grade heat sealers. An inner lining of polyethylene or polypropylene film at the open side of the bag allowed for complete sealing using low-cost hand-actuated impulse heat sealers. This design even facilitated the addition of plastic zipper-locks, allowing secure closure of the bag without electricity or special equipment. Other sealing methods were identified, but most were time-consuming, required practice or not consistently successful. The maggot containment bag designs and closure methods described herein should prove useful to clinicians without access to contained maggots and to maggot producers without the resources to seal polyester containment bags. Clinical trials are expected to follow.

Keywords: debridement; dressing; larva; maggot; wound.

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Conflict of interest statement

Dr. Sherman discloses that, when this research was initiated, he was co‐founder and Laboratory Director of Monarch Labs, a company that produced and distributed medicinal maggots in the United States. Dr. Sherman subsequently retired from, and divested from, Monarch Labs; he is no longer the owner, shareholder or employee of any wound care company. Dr. Sherman is the Director of the not‐for‐profit BioTherapeutics, Education and Research (BTER) Foundation, whose mission is to advance health care through education and research in biotherapy. To minimize conflicts of interest, he accepts no remuneration for the administrative, research, teaching, patient care or other services that he performs for this charity and its clients. To further minimize conflicts of interest, Dr. Sherman earns his living by working in an unrelated field: as an HIV/AIDS physician for the Health Care Agency of Orange County, California. Dr. Stadler is the director of MedMagLabs, a Similitude Pty Ltd. business aiming to supply medicinal maggots in Australia and elsewhere, particularly in low‐and middle‐income countries and compromised healthcare settings. The technology described in this publication is likely to facilitate low‐cost delivery of maggot therapy services in such markets.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Medicinal maggots sealed in a polyester net bag, using an industrial‐grade, variable‐temperature heat sealer. “Histology Bags” (A) with extended edge for easy filling (SaatiTech, Fountain Inn, SC), manufactured from SaatiTech PES 105/33 polyester net, were sealed with a Packworld USA (Nazareth, PA) PW7016 electrical heat sealer (B) after filling the bags with maggot‐impregnated gauze (C).
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Adding a polyethylene or polypropylene collar onto the polyester net bag. The polyethylene or polypropylene collar must first be welded onto the net fabric before folding and welding the fabric into its final form as a bag. The plastic film can be allowed to extend beyond the polyester net fabric as a “collar” (A), without or with a zipper lock (B), or the plastic film can be cut to size so that it is nothing more than an inner lining within the neck of the net bag (C).
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Method for constructing net bags with two different plastics. Polyester net was cut twice as long as the finished bag (A) before adding the strip of polyethylene or polypropylene film (B) with a heat‐sealer. The material was folded in half to align the top edges, and the sides of the materials were then heat‐sealed (C), creating a net bag with a plastic collar, liner or zipper‐lock, as described in the text.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Strong adhesive tape provided an adequate seal as long as the tape extended beyond the edges of the bag and was applied firmly to itself, adhesive side to adhesive side. Fabric tape was folded over the net bag, extending beyond the edges, and pressed firmly together to seal the bag, before trimming the excess border (A). Zinc oxide tape (B) and transparent membrane dressings (C) worked equally well to seal the polyester net bags.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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