FDA Clears Medical Leeches

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has for the first time cleared the commercial marketing of leeches for medicinal purposes. Leeches have been used as an alternative treatment to blood-letting and amputation for several thousand years. They reached their height of medicinal use in the mid- 1800’s. Today they are used in medicine throughout the world as tools in skin grafts and reattachment surgery. Learn more.