Hirudotherapy is the use of medicinal leeches Hirudo medicinalis for medicinal purposes.
Separate general and local effects of hirudotherapy (decrease in circulating blood volume, lowering blood pressure, improving microcirculation, etc.) are associated with a purely mechanical discharge of blood flow, as well as a neuro-reflex action. The basis of the polyphony of the therapeutic effects of hirudotherapy is the action of the whole complex of biologically active substances of the salivary glands secretion of leeches, which enter the bloodstream and tissue after biting through the skin (or mucous membrane) and continue to be ingested by the patient.
At the resort, hirudotherapy is applied sequentially, in stages, or in combination with the main therapeutic procedures. In the presence of contraindications hirudotherapy can be used as monotherapy. The schemes and regimens of hirudotherapy are determined by the hirudotherapeutist and vary depending on the duration of the treatment course and the length of stay of the patients.
Contraindications
Hirudotherapy is contraindicated in case of individual intolerance, anemia, severe hypotension, hemophilia, pregnancy and lactation.
