Plasmas potential use in disinfecting wounds and healthy skin
13 Jan 2010 by Evoluted New Media
Low-temperature plasma is already used to sterilise surgical equipment due to its ability to reach all surfaces, and now scientists hope to use it to disinfect healthy skin and chronic wounds, and eliminate MRSA and other drug-resistant bacteria.
Low-temperature plasma is already used to sterilise surgical equipment due to its ability to reach all surfaces, and now scientists hope to use it to disinfect healthy skin and chronic wounds, and eliminate MRSA and other drug-resistant bacteria.
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Low-temperature plasma could be used to disinfect healthy skin and chronic wounds |
A research group from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics – who published their findings in two papers in New Journal of Physics - has built and trialled a device capable of disinfecting human skin safely within seconds. It can eliminate drug-resistant kinds of bacteria which are responsible for approximately 37,000 deaths from hospital-induced infections every year in the EU.
Professor Greg Morfill, lead author of the studies told Laboratory News: “The main benefits that I would hope for are the decrease in the spreading of hospital-induced infections, in particular the growing threat of antibiotically resistant bacteria and a reduced risk of skin irritations and allergic reactions in hospital staff.” He hopes the device will be used in homes to disinfect small wounds and skin abrasions, and to prevent parodontosis and fungal infections.
The same group – working with ADTEC Plasma Technology in Japan – also developed an argon plasma torch able to disinfect non-healing wounds. It can regulate the density of biologically-active agents, ensuring the plasma is deadly for bacteria but harmless to human cells, and is currently undergoing medical trials in two German hospitals.
Professor Morfill said: “I hope we can follow up on the cell biology results and demonstrate that cell regeneration can be enhanced in wounds, with improved scarring. In the very long term, the vision is to employ "designer plasmas" - where ions are introduced as new medically active components, where medically active (neutral) species are delivered at the molecular level directly to cell tissue and where plasma generated excited atoms can make cell walls more easily penetrable for these species.”
In low-temperature plasmas, the temperature of ions and neutral particles stays low – unlike their high-temperature counterparts found in stars. The fraction of molecules ionised - and therefore hot - is so small, that collisions with neutral molecules quickly reduce their temperature again. Low-temperature plasmas have been used in plastic bag production, streetlamp manufacture and semiconductor circuits.
