Leech therapy and bleeding wound techniques to relieve venous congestion.

Temporary restoration of capillary skin blood flow can be established by using leeches or by the creation of a dermal wound and the promotion of continued bleeding from the wound site in a flap with venous occlusion. An increasing restoration of capillary flow occurred with initial application of the leech and tended to exceed other techniques of restoring flow. However, all techniques of exsanguination, including leech therapy, restored very low perfusion over a two-hour course of therapy for a volume of tissue simulating a distal finger replant. The temporary increase in flap perfusion with a single leech application was greatest during the feeding activity of the leech and tapered off after the leech was satiated, to approximate flows achieved with local heparin injection and a punch wound.