What evidence is there to support maggot therapy for the treatment of pressure ulcers rather than conventional debridement therapies?

Writing Questions

Your first task

First Steps

The first thing you will need to do for this module is to identify an area or topic to explore. This should be something relevant to your area of work, and an issue where you feel you want to use evidence to identify best practice. If you can you could make it relevant to other modules you are studying.

You will then need to do an initial review of the literature and determine the question you want to ask.

PICO

nThis is a mnemonic used to describe the four elements of a good question.

nP = Patient/population/problem

nI = Intervention/indicator

nC = Comparison/control

nO = Outcome

Patient, population, problem

nPatient or group (gender, race, age)

nDisease or condition

nStage of illness

nCare setting

Intervention

nType of treatment (drug, procedure, therapy)

nIntervention level (dosage, frequency)

nStage of intervention (prevention, early, advanced)

nDelivery (who delivers the intervention? Where?)

Comparison

nAlternative interventions (standard treatment, placebo. Another intervention)

nThere may not always be a comparison

Outcome

nThe outcome or effects you are interested in, for example

nImprovement of symptoms, healing

nSide effects

nImproved quality of life

nCost effectiveness and benefits for the service provider
Example1

What evidence is there to support maggot therapy for the treatment of pressure ulcers rather than conventional debridement therapies?

nP = pressure ulcers (problem)

nI = maggot therapy (proposed intervention)

nC = conventional debridement therapies (comparative treatment)

nO = wound healing (outcome)