Hirudoteraphy in pain management

This study was conducted in order to evaluate the results of leech application in the treatment of chronic pain patients. The patients were subjected to leech therapy on the day of their visit on the most painful area. In the study, observations were conducted both before and after leech therapy, and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) scores were recorded to assess pain levels. The VAS scores ranged from 0 to 10, with 0 indicating no pain and 10 representing the highest level of pain possible. Duration of effect and recovery times were also recorded. The results showed that leech application is effective in the treatment of pain complaints. There was a significant decrease in pain complaints with leech therapy in patients and the average pain intensity in a 10 mm VAS before treatment decreased from 5.75 to 1.45 after treatment. A positive effect was observed in the applied treatments in a short period of 2 hours on average, and improvement was observed in 1-2 days.