...medical grade leech...
There's a phrase I never thought I'd hear.
Part of the reason I like using it. It simply means that it's been grown in a medically clean enviroment, is free from potential infection factors, and is of an approved breed.
It's the same for the maggots, but with more emphasis on the breed part, as some will eat living flesh, and some won't. You, of course, want the ones that won't eat living flesh, but are happy with the enviroment of a rotting wound, as opposed to a truly dead critter or rotting log.
As for overall advancement of medical technology, we've advanced hugely in the realm of joint replacement, microsurgury as has been said, small incision techniques, etc...
Let's put it this way: Over 50 years ago, there was no such thing as 'routine surgury' as we know it today. You literally didn't go under the knife unless it was a matter of life or death. Something as 'simple' as an appendectomy had a two week hospital recovery time. With newer procedures, it's been reduced to a matter of a day, even outpatient.
Now just about every actor we know has gone under the knife for 'improvement'. Hip replacement for the elderly is almost routine. Joints and ligaments can be repaired and reattached. Artificial knees for sports players. Laparoscopy surgury which entails usage of a camera and a few cuts, only mm's in length (2mm for the camera). Equipment now exists to grow and expand skin for usage on burn victims. Directed radiation treatment for cancers. Cochlear implants to restore hearing. Laser surgury for eyes, to the point that I went in for it, just to eliminate my need for glasses, though I ended up being eliminated as a potential candiate for now. I'll probably try again once I get out of the military.
In short, we're not only able to keep people alive longer, we've made quantom leaps in keeping and restoring functionality. Fewer people ending up in wheelchairs, with hooks instead of hands, blind, or deaf. Heck, cochlear implants are actually so successful that some deaf people despair the 'loss of deaf culture'.