First Report on the Use of Larvae of Cochliomyia macellaria (Diptera: Calliphoridae) for Wound Treatment in Veterinary Practice.

Factors contributing to the delay or prevention of the natural wound healing process include infection and ineffective conventional treatment. Alternative therapies, such as the maggot debridement therapy (MDT), may be helpful for successful treatment in these cases. Aiming to disseminate information about the possibility of using other species of flies for wound treatment, besides the best known Lucilia sericata Meigen, 1826 (Diptera, Calliphoridae), we report here a successful MDT case with the application of Cochliomyia macellaria (Fabricius, 1775) larvae to treat an infected wound with extensive area of necrotic tissue in a dog. Five sterile larvae were applied to each square-cm of lesion and kept on the animal for only 48 h. The healing was successful, from both qualitative and quantitative points of view. The ratio of wound healing (RWH) reached almost 50% on the 5th day and 100% on the 14th day after MDT. Although the overall animal prognosis had been unfavorable, mainly due to the sepsis, the patient began to recover and had improved clinical condition from the fifth day after MDT. This study shows the importance and effectiveness of MDT in promoting faster and more complete healing of a complex wound.

Kikuchi's disease: report of 2 cases and a brief review of the literature.

Kikuchi's lymphadenitis is a histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis without granulocytic infiltration, with fever and generally with a benign course, despite its pathologic resemblance to malignant lymphoma. The illness usually begins with localized cervical adenopathy in young adult females, predominantly before the fourth decade of life. Clinically, several agents could be the cause of such an illness--toxoplasmosis, herpes group viral infection, cat scratch disease, lymphoma, SLE and other infectious agents. The diagnosis is made by using a histological technique. The lymph node biopsy reveals fibrinoid necrosis, loss of lymph node structure with many histiocytes and an absence of granulomatous reaction. The immunohistochemical analysis shows that the main affected cellular components are the T cells. Laboratory exams show an erythrocyte sedimentation increase, neutropenia, leukopenia and lymphocytosis. We describe two cases that were followed since 1994 and 1996, respectively. Both were females under 25 years old, who developed a febrile disease with lymphadenopathy. Lymph node biopsies showed necrotizing lymphadenitis without granulocytic infiltrations. The patients had no evidence of other systemic diseases. Our objectives are to present a rare cause of febrile disease with enlargement of cervical lymph nodes, to review Kikuchi's disease, and to alert the medical community to this rare cause of fever and lymphadenopathy.