This week is the Botched season finale and Dr. Dubrow and Dr. Paul Nassif are ready to bring out the leeches!
Leech therapy might send shivers down your spine or be the sort of thing you have nightmares about, but it is a real medical treatment and is used quite often to help damaged tissue repair itself.
Leeches are found all over the world and survive by attaching to animal and then sucking out small amount of blood to use as food.
Medical leeches are specially bred and are used to help improve blood flow to areas where circulation is poor. They do this by removing clotted blood from areas that are difficult to get to. So maybe under a flap of skin or a delicate piece of tissue.
When they remove the clot this can then restart the blood flow to the affected area and stop tissue from dying.
The leeches do this by releasing chemicals to help them feed uninterrupted. These include a local anaesthetic to numb the pain of their bite, a vasodilator that increases the blood supply and hirudin and calin. These last two substances stop the area clotting.
Also, although the leeches will drop off once they have fed the improved circulation can last for 48 hours.
This is especially important in reconstructive and plastic surgery, where there is often localised damage and delicate areas.
The risks are fairly minor but include a small chance of infection and wounds bleeding a little too long, but the former are usually countered with some precautionary antibiotics.
Find out on this week’s show just how the two doctors put this treatment to good use.
Botched airs on Thursdays at 9:00 PM ON E!