Plasma medicine: possible applications in dermatology

Abstract

SummaryAs a result of both the better understanding of complex plasma phenomena and the development of new plasma sources in the past few years, plasma medicine has developed into an innovative field of research showing high potential. While thermal plasmas have long been used in various medical fields (for instance for cauterization and sterilization of medical instruments), current research mainly focuses on application of non-thermal plasmas. Experiments show that cold atmospheric plasmas (CAPs) allow efficient, contact-free and painless disinfection, even in microscopic openings, without damaging healthy tissue. Plasmas influence biochemical processes and offer new possibilities for the selective application of individually designable medically active substances. In dermatology, new horizons are being opened for wound healing, tissue regeneration, therapy of skin infections, and probably many more diseases. First clinical trials show the efficacy and tolerability of plasma in treating infected chronic wounds. A major task will be the introduction of plasma into clinical medicine and, simultaneously, the further investigation of the mechanisms of action of plasma at the cellular level.

Impact of plasma jet vacuum ultraviolet radiation on reactive oxygen species generation in bio-relevant liquids

“…The experiments show that all studied species were also formed by pure plasma jet VUV radiation treatment but in lower amounts than for the complete plasma jet 122008- 8 Jablonowski et al…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5] The strongly non-equilibrium chemistry along with their physical properties of energy transfer into sensible surfaces makes them excellently suited for treatment of, e.g., chronic wounds. [6][7][8][9] The energy dissipated within the plasma is transferred into thermal, chemical, electronic, and radiative energy, to name the most relevant examples. The gas and plasma phase chemistry of these jets has been investigated quite thoroughly, and many processes have been already understood.…”

Terminal sterilization: Conventional methods versus emerging cold atmospheric pressure plasma technology for non‐viable biological tissues

“…Plasmas at atmospheric pressure can be classified in terms of temperature into two categories, thermal [80,81] and non-thermal. [82][83][84] In thermal plasma, the charged particles, neutral electrons and heavy particles all have the same high temperatures (in thermodynamic equilibrium with the surrounding temperature) and are almost fully ionized; whilst, in the non-thermal plasma the temperature of gas, atoms and molecules remains low [85] because of the slight ionization c Plasma in physics is the fourth state of matter basically constituted of partly or entirely ionized gas contains free radicals, charged ions and electrons, neutral atoms and other radiation.…”

Rapid Prototyping of Hybrid, Plastic-Quartz 3D-Chips for Battery-Operated Microplasmas

“…Although microplasmas are a relatively new research area, they are beginning to attract significant interest in areas as diverse as science, engineering, medicine and technology (Tachibana, 2006;Becker et al, 2006;Iza et al, 2008;Foest et al, 16;Becker et al, 2010). To give a limited number of examples, in physics they are used as light sources for spectroscopy (Tachibana, 2006); in materials science for nanomaterials synthesis (Zou et al, 2009;Sankaran et al, 2005;Chiang et al, 2007;Sankaran, 2011;Mariotti & Sankaran, 2011;Mariotti & Sankaran, 2010;Chian & Sankaran, 2010); in medicine for sterilization (Uhm & Hong, 2011) and for plasma medicine Heinlin et al, 2010;Fridman et al, 2008;Kong et al, 2009); in technology for lighting applications (Readle et al, 2007;Boertner et al, 2010) and for plasma television (Boeuf, 2003;Petrovic et al, 2008;Kim et al, 2009;Mun et al, 2009;Lee et al, 2011). In chemistry, among other applications they are used for chemical analysis of samples (e.g., elemental analysis of water samples).…”