Cold Atmospheric Plasmas: Their Use in Biology and Medicine

Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) generators have been actively developed as a new device for medical treatment. The applications of plasma treatment include 1) disinfection, sterilization, and decontamination, which inactivates or kills bacteria, fungi, viruses and spores; 2) bleeding control, which coagulates blood swiftly; 3) wound healing, which shortens the healing period and benefits the regeneration of the epithelization of tissue to avoid scar formation; etc.

Biomedical applications of CAPs are explored via either in-vitro assays, or in-vivo tests using pigs as animal models; tests include sterilization of oral pathogens and biofilm, decontamination of biological warfare agent, blood clotting and rapid control of active life-threatening hemorrhage, and post-operative observation of wound healing after plasma treatment. The conventional approaches in each application are first introduced, then the advantages of plasma treatments are discussed and demonstrated by the test results. The mechanisms of CAPs' biocidal effect, blood clotting effect, and wound healing effect are presented and discussed.