The Food and Drug Administration this week ruled that leeches are medical devices, elevating them from their lowly status as garden-variety worm. They were just given the hoity-toity FDA designation, but local doctors have long used leeches for tissue reattachment and reconstructive surgery, saying the sluggish slime-sters often come through in a limb-saving pinch, prick and suck. Today's leeches have carved out a niche in post-operative hospital care. Leeches applied to reattached tissue keep blood from pooling in the tissue before full circulation can be restored. University of Pittsburgh professor of plastic surgery Dr. Fred Deleyiannis said his department has occasion to administer the leech treatment every couple of months. For instance, an Ohio prison inmate on Monday evening was brought to UPMC Presbyterian hospital's emergency room toting his ear in an ice-filled cup after it was bitten off in a jailhouse scuffle. Deleyiannis used a leech as a post-op chaser following emergency microsurgery to reattach it. "You can make cuts and irrigate the area, but leeches are probably the most efficient anticoagulant out there," he said. Mercy Hospital keeps its own private leech farm, said Dr. Guy M. Stofman, chief of plastic surgery. The blood-suckers are hungry and ready to get to work at a moment's notice, Stofman said. "The pharmacy keeps them in a small tank. We may go months without using them, but we are able to keep them on standby," he said. The Mercy doc said side effects attributed to leeches are minimal as long as the patient's blood levels are closely watched. An organism carried in some leeches' salivary glands can be dangerous to humans, but an antibiotic is administered to patients to stave off infection. Patients treated with leeches aren't always thrilled about having the suckers stuck to them for as long as several days, but doctors agreed they get over it. "There can be some anxiety or fear of the animals, a general uneasiness. We try to sequester the wound so the patient doesn't see it," Stofman said.

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