Funny : "yet doctors cling to a tool that was invented at a time when medical practitioners still regularly used leeches as a form of treatment." They still do

Funny : "yet doctors cling to a tool that was invented at a time when medical practitioners still regularly used leeches as a form of treatment." They still do "cling" to leeches for some treatments as well. Leeches are hard to beat for a few conditions. It's got a name : hirudotherapy, and sees application in skin related conditions and wound cleaning, and saves hundreds of legs and arms from amputation on a yearly basis and even sees use in cosmetic medicine. Cleaning skin and wounds the way leeches do is not impossible but takes experts hours or days and introduces risks that treatment with leeches does not. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirudo_medicinalis#Today https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirudo_medicinalis#Today