Room temperature plasma
Doctors and physicists from Russia have created a device for rapid wound healing
Scientists from Sechenov University and Bauman Moscow State Technical University have created a new device for rapid healing of wounds and ulcers using cold plasma and successfully tested its work on rats. The results of these experiments were presented in the European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Shekhter et al., Physic-chemical parameters of NO-containing gas flow affect wound healing therapy. An experimental study).
"Our Plason device, as well as nitrogen monoxide, have been used in medicine for more than 17 years. They significantly reduce the likelihood of complications after surgery and heal diabetic ulcers. At the same time, they have a disadvantage – the plasma temperature remained high enough, which can damage tissues. We have solved this problem," the researchers write.
Cold plasma, unlike the incandescent matter in the bowels of the Sun and thermonuclear reactors, fully ionized and heated to several million or billion degrees, is a relatively "peaceful" substance. Its temperature usually does not exceed several tens of thousands of degrees Celsius, and the proportion of free ions and electrons in it is usually about 1%.
This form of matter, as scientists say, has long been of interest to physicians. Both Russian and foreign researchers have already tried to use it for the treatment of wounds, but the results of different experiments differed markedly. In some cases, plasma accelerated the healing of damaged tissues, and in others the situation did not change.
At the end of the last century, physicists from Bauman Moscow State Technical University and their medical colleagues from Sechenov University created "Plason", the first cold plasma generator that successfully coped with this task. The key to this was the use of nitrogen monoxide (NO) as one of the "therapeutic" components of this form of matter.
Nitrogen monoxide plays a very important role in the work of our body. Its molecules are critically important for regulating pressure in blood vessels, and they are also involved in suppressing inflammation and in the regeneration of damaged tissues and organs.
According to the press service of the university, "Plason" has proven itself in the treatment of surgical diseases, in particular, purulent wounds of soft tissues, burns, purulent-inflammatory processes, trophic and diabetic ulcers and other non-healing wounds.
At the same time, the potential of its use, according to Anatoly Shechter, one of the developers of the device, was quite severely limited for the reason that it produced a sufficiently hot plasma stream, the temperature of which ranged from 40 to 60 degrees. It can cause burns and aggravate the patient's condition, rather than help him.
Guided by similar considerations, Schechter and his colleagues thought about whether it is possible to change the design of this device so that it produces plasma at room temperature, not inferior in its properties to its hotter variety.
By joining forces with colleagues at MSTU, Russian doctors were able to solve this problem by significantly changing the device of the "Plason". Like its predecessor, the new device simultaneously generates low-temperature plasma and nitrogen monoxide, passing electricity discharges through a jet of air and then cooling it to a low temperature.
Using this device, scientists tried to accelerate the healing of sufficiently large "holes" in the skin of rats by blowing them from different distances with NO-based plasma, as well as with simple air. In the following days, doctors monitored the formation of a new layer of skin and the appearance of various complications in the process of tightening the wound.
As it turned out, the new version of "Plason" was not inferior in efficiency to its predecessor, but at the same time it excludes the fact that the internal organs of a person will be damaged during the treatment of peritonitis, purulent pleurisy, burns and ulcers of the cornea of the eye and other sensitive tissues.
At the same time, most importantly, the experiments of Schechter and his colleagues showed that the temperature of the gas does not affect the speed and nature of wound healing. This means that the new device will allow you to treat wounds faster and reduce the likelihood of scars and inflammation.
Scientists hope that in the near future they will begin clinical trials on volunteers, which will eventually allow their device to enter medical practice and make life easier for many diabetics and other patients suffering from non-healing wounds and infections.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru