STOCKHOLM -- A cheap natural therapy for arthritis was recommended by scientists on Friday -- Hirudo Medicinalis, or more simply, leeches.

As Western drugmakers waxed lyrical about their latest blockbusters at a meeting in Stockholm, a Russian team told how they had successfully used the blood-sucking creatures to treat both rheumatoid and osteoarthritis.

"We found in all patients clinical improvement after leeches therapy," Reuters quoted I.G. Salikhov and colleagues at State Medical University, Kazan, as saying.

Leeches were used by doctors to treat a variety of ailments before the advent of modern medicine -- and with billions of dollars are spent each year on conventional drug therapies they might yet prove attractive to hard-pressed health services.

The saliva of leeches contains analgesic and anaesthetic compounds, as well as hirudin, an anti-blood clotting agent.

The Russian researchers evaluated leech therapy in 105 patients with periarticular symptoms of rheumatoid and osteoarthritis -- a complication which affects muscular tissue and impairs quality of life.

"We did hirudotherapy from one to five times to each patient using leeches on the area of painful trigger zones in the muscles surrounding the joints," they wrote in an abstract presented at the annual European Congress of Rheumatology.

The resulting clinical improvements included decrease or disappearance of muscle pain and less early morning stiffness.

In addition, the range of movements in joints increased.

There were no significant side effects after treatment, leading the scientists to conclude the use of leeches was both effective and safe.