Abstract

A BRIEF REVIEW ON THE LEECH CULTIVATION AND APPLICATIONS OF LEECH THERAPY IN PAIN MANAGEMENT

Ravi Raj Singh* and Gyanendra Datta Shukla

Abstract

Leech therapy has been practiced over the past many years and its application in Ayurveda is well recognized. Medicinal leeches and their historical use in phlebotomy (blood-letting) and contemporary use in neurobiology and medicine are summarised as vasodilation, bacteriostatic role, analgesic, anti inflammatory, anti oedematous and anticoagulation. Leech therapy has always been an important treatment modality in Ayurveda. Medicinal leeches are known for their extensive therapeutic uses. Cultivation of leech species is an important research area to understand the mechanism of therapeutic gains and exploring more probable benefits. Researchers have done a well job in identifying various species of leeches in different parts of Asia including India. For therapeutic purpose however, the clinicians in India have not bothered much about the exact identification of leech species being used at different centres. There is dearth of research papers in this aspect. The following article presents a brief review on the leech cultivation and applications of leech therapy in pain management. Main text:- In this study, an attempt has been made to survey the vast literature of Ayurveda and modern medical world. For this kind of job all sorts of articles possessing the concerned topic, medical literature and latest research papers published in international journals of global repute were collected. Different websites on the internet have been used as source of informative material related with this topic.

Keywords: Leech, Leech identification, Leech farming, Bloodletting, Pain.