Reading: Sentence Completion: Question 5

Few sights unsettle hospital visitors more than a surgical ward where patients recovering from reattachment surgery are treated with live leeches, yet the practice, once dismissed as an outdated relic of pre-modern medicine, has quietly returned to specialised centres worldwide. Its modern use has nothing to do with the discredited historical theory of bad blood that drove leech bleeding treatments for centuries; instead, leeches are applied for a precise physiological reason connected to the biology of reattached tissue.

When a finger, ear or other body part is surgically reattached, surgeons can usually reconnect the small arteries that pump blood into the tissue, but the far more delicate veins responsible for draining blood back out are frequently too narrow or too damaged to reconnect successfully. Without adequate drainage, blood pools in the reattached tissue, and the resulting pressure can cut off circulation entirely, causing the graft to die within days. A feeding leech relieves this pressure directly: its bite releases hirudin, a natural anticoagulant compound in its saliva that prevents the blood it draws from clotting, allowing continuous drainage that lasts for several hours after the leech itself has detached and fallen away.

Medicinal leeches used in hospitals today are raised in sterile facilities and are never reused between patients, addressing one of the main hygiene objections raised when the therapy was first reintroduced during the 1980s. A typical treatment course applies leeches to the affected tissue several times a day for roughly a week, the period during which the reattached tissue's own tiny veins gradually grow large enough to handle drainage unaided.

Researchers have since isolated hirudin and produced it synthetically for use in other anticoagulant medications, yet synthetic hirudin alone cannot replicate the mechanical drainage a feeding leech provides, which is why live leeches, rather than a purely chemical alternative, remain standard practice in microsurgical recovery wards for tissue at genuine risk of venous congestion.

Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

1. The discredited historical theory that once justified leech bleeding treatments is known as the theory of ____________________.
2. After reattachment surgery, arteries can usually be reconnected, but the ____________________ responsible for draining blood are often too narrow to reconnect.
3. Without adequate drainage, rising pressure in the reattached tissue can cause the graft to ____________________ within days.
4. A leech's bite releases ____________________, an anticoagulant compound that stops the drawn blood from clotting.
5. Leech-assisted drainage can continue for several hours after the leech itself has ____________________ and fallen away.
6. Hospitals address hygiene concerns by raising leeches in sterile facilities and ensuring they are never ____________________ between patients.
7. Hygiene objections to leech therapy were first raised when it was reintroduced during the ____________________.
8. A typical treatment applies leeches several times a day for roughly ____________________, until the tissue's own veins grow large enough to drain unaided.