Medicinal leeches are best known for their blood
feeding habits and for their use in the art of
phlebotomy or bloodletting8
. Although their medicinal
use declined in Europe and America, this therapy
always occupied an important place in Unani System
of Medicine to manage various ailments including
joints pain9
. It is constantly being practiced in India,
Iran and Pakistan by the Unani physicians. Hirudin,
one of the biologically active substances in leech
saliva, was identified as the most potent known
natural inhibitor of coagulation10,11. European
medicinal leech, Hirudo medicinalis has recently been
rediscovered and is used by the plastic surgeons to aid
salvage of compromised venous engorged tissue,
including free and pedicled flaps, amputated digit,