A longstanding diabetic foot ulcer that had failed to improve with standard wound care finally healed with the aid of maggot therapy, honey dressings and human amniotic membrane, case authors report.

The 46-year-old man with a history of poorly controlled type 2 diabetes presented to the clinic at the Urmia University of Medical Sciences in Iran with a non-healing pressure wound on his left foot.

The wound, which had been present for six months and measured 7cm in length, had necrotic tissue and signs of infection including erythema, purulent discharge and a foul odour.

“The patient reported a history of conventional wound care treatments, including wound cleansing, antibiotic therapy, and offloading, which had failed to achieve significant improvement,” the authors wrote in the International Journal of Surgery Case Reports.