[thedoc (OP)]

Christine Kretschmann  asked the Naked Scientists:
   Have you ever heard about cold plasma treatment ?

I saw a german documentary about this amazing treatment, which is treament a la star trek.

Scientists  in Germany has  developed a device  which produce a cold plasma (40 c) which is  successful used to heal wounds which are infected by resitent bacterias(where no antibotic can help at the moment).

After two treatments with the plasma the bacteria population is reduced by 40%. The best thing is, for all how are afraid of he dentist, you can used to heal tooth illness, no drilling anymore.

Sadly I could only find only german publication.

http://www.bmbf.de/de/13972.php
http://www.patent-de.com/20071031/DE102006019664A1.html

In any case it is quite interesting, I can't remember a podcast about cold plasma. Have you ever reported about this ?

Kind regards

Christine Kretschmann
What do you think?

[exothermic]

After two treatments with the plasma the bacteria population is reduced by 40%.

The 40% reduction is the mean value out of 14 patients which were treated 5 times for 2 minutes with the argon plasma device.

Sadly I could only find only german publication.

Br J Dermatol. 2012 Aug;167(2):404-10. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2133.2012.10923.x. Epub 2012 Jul 10.
Isbary G1, Heinlin J, Shimizu T, Zimmermann JL, Morfill G, Schmidt HU, Monetti R, Steffes B, Bunk W, Li Y, Klaempfl T, Karrer S, Landthaler M, Stolz W.

Successful and safe use of 2 min cold atmospheric argon plasma in chronic wounds: results of a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND:
The development of antibiotic resistance by microorganisms is an increasing problem in medicine. In chronic wounds, bacterial colonization is associated with impaired healing. Cold atmospheric plasma is an innovative promising tool to deal with these problems.

OBJECTIVES:
The 5-min argon plasma treatment has already demonstrated efficacy in reducing bacterial numbers in chronic infected wounds in vivo. In this study we investigated a 2-min plasma treatment with the same device and the next-generation device, to assess safety and reduction in bacterial load, regardless of the kind of bacteria and their resistance level in chronic wounds.

METHODS:
Twenty-four patients with chronic infected wounds were treated in a prospective randomized controlled phase II study with 2 min of cold atmospheric argon plasma every day: 14 with MicroPlaSter alpha device, 10 with MicroPlaSter beta device (next-generation device) in addition to standard wound care. The patient acted as his/her own control. Bacterial species were detected by standard bacterial swabs and bacterial load by semiquantitative count on nitrocellulose filters. The plasma settings were the same as in the previous phase II study in which wounds were exposed for 5 min to argon plasma.

RESULTS:
Analysis of 70 treatments in 14 patients with the MicroPlaSter alpha device revealed a significant (40%, P<0.016) reduction in bacterial load in plasma-treated wounds, regardless of the species of bacteria. Analysis of 137 treatments in 10 patients with the MicroPlaSter beta device showed a highly significant reduction (23.5%, P<0.008) in bacterial load. No side-effects occurred and the treatment was well tolerated.

CONCLUSIONS:
A 2-min treatment with either of two cold atmospheric argon plasma devices is a safe, painless and effective technique to decrease the bacterial load in chronic wounds.

© 2012 The Authors. BJD © 2012 British Association of Dermatologists.
PMID: 22385038

[evan_au]

the bacteria population is reduced by 40%

Many bacteria can divide in 30-60 minutes.

Does this mean that the bacterial load is back to the starting leval an hour after the treatment?