Leeches Dipped in Guinness Turned Erratic, and the Ones Placed on Garlic Died

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Editorial Illustration via AI Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on Pocket Two researchers in Norway once tried to solve a real surgical headache with ingredients that sound like a pub menu. Their paper in the BMJ, titled “Effect of ale, garlic, and soured cream on the appetite of leeches,” was published on December 24, 1994. It asked whether beer, sour cream, or garlic could coax medicinal leeches into biting faster.

The results were not what folk medicine promised. Leeches dipped in beer reportedly became erratic, and leeches placed on garlic-smeared skin died.

The experiment was written with a wink. But the problem behind it is real: leeches remain a cleared medical device in the United States, and surgeons still need them to latch on when it counts.

The authors, Anders Bærheim and Hogne Sandvik of the University of Bergen’s Division for General Practice, started with a practical complaint. Leeches used after microsurgery sometimes refuse to feed.

Old medical lore offered fixes. The paper notes that 19th-century doctors used to soak leeches in strong beer before applying them to patients, and that a deaconess in the 1920s found that a little sour cream on the skin seemed to encourage the leeches to feed.

So the pair tried both ideas. Six leeches were dipped briefly in Guinness stout, Hansa bock, or plain water and then placed on Sandvik’s forearm. The researchers timed how long it took from the moment each leech touched his skin until he felt it bite. The team also tested leeches on skin smeared with sour cream or garlic.

The beer did not produce hungrier leeches. A Reuters report carried by the Deseret News said the leeches that came into contact with beer became erratic instead.

Garlic was worse. According to the same report, leeches placed on skin smeared with garlic died.

That outcome clashed with the authors’ own earlier work. In a companion study in the Norwegian Medical Association’s journal, titled “Beskytter hvitløk mot vampyrer?” (“Does garlic protect against vampires?”), Sandvik and Bærheim explained that they had used leeches because of a local shortage of vampires. Given a choice between a garlic-smeared hand and a clean one, the leeches picked the garlic hand in 28 of 42 trials, about two out of three times. They also attached faster: an average of 14.9 seconds on the garlic hand versus 44.9 seconds on the clean one. The authors concluded, tongue in cheek, that garlic may attract vampires rather than repel them.

The BMJ experiment has obvious limits. It used a handful of leeches, a single volunteer’s skin, and the journal’s lighthearted Christmas format. It offers no clinical guidance on how hospitals should handle leeches.

It did earn a different kind of recognition. Bærheim and Sandvik received the 1996 Ig Nobel Prize in Biology, which honors research that first makes people laugh and then makes them think. The prize citation praised their “tasty and tasteful report.”

The joke works because the medical use is real. On June 21, 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared medicinal leeches as a device through its 510(k) pathway. The application came from Ricarimpex SAS of Eysines, France.

Surgeons rely on leeches mainly for venous congestion, a backup of blood that can follow flap surgery or the reattachment of a severed body part. Arteries may still deliver blood to the tissue, but if the veins cannot drain it, the tissue can swell, darken, and die.

A 2019 review in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Global Open, by Paige Hackenberger and Jeffrey Janis, describes leeches being used after the reattachment of fingers and toes, lips, ears, nipples, and nasal tips. Their saliva contains hirudin, a natural compound that blocks clotting. A single leech can take in 5 to 15 milliliters of blood during a feeding that lasts 30 to 90 minutes.

The review cites one analysis of 277 cases that found a total tissue salvage rate of 78%, a reminder that leeches are a rescue tool, not a guarantee.

The more serious hazard in leech therapy comes from bacteria. The same review reports that 14.4% of patients receiving medicinal leech therapy developed a related infection, and that Aeromonas species account for 88% of leech-associated infections.

Infection matters. Tissue salvage fell to 37.4% in patients who developed an infection, compared with 88.3% in those who did not. That is why up to 79% of patients receiving leech therapy are also started on preventive antibiotics, according to the review.

That makes the Bergen experiment a curious footnote to a genuine clinical problem. Getting a leech to bite can matter when reattached tissue is turning blue, but modern practice relies on careful handling, monitoring, and infection control rather than a pint of stout or a clove of garlic.

Patients facing leech therapy after surgery can ask their care team how the leeches will be applied, how long treatment is expected to last, and what infection precautions are in place.

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Two University of Bergen researchers tested whether dipping leeches in beer, or putting them on skin smeared with sour cream or garlic, changed how quickly the leeches bit.

What happened to the leeches exposed to beer and garlic?

Contemporary Reuters reporting said the beer-dipped leeches became erratic and the leeches placed on garlic-smeared skin died.

Is the study a serious guide to leech therapy?

No. It was a small, humorous Christmas paper that used one researcher’s arm, and it does not guide how hospitals use leeches today.

Are medicinal leeches still used in the U.S.?

Yes. The FDA cleared medicinal leeches as a medical device in 2004, and surgeons use them mainly to relieve venous congestion after flap and reattachment surgery.

Infection, most often from Aeromonas bacteria. Many patients receive preventive antibiotics, and anyone undergoing treatment should discuss precautions with their surgical team.