Plasma is an ionized gas made up of free
electrons and positively charged ions. For wound treatment, non-equilibrium
atmospheric pressure plasma jets are generally made from noble gases like
helium. Plasma treatment has been found to have properties that can accelerate
wound healing and has been attracting attention with a rapid increase in the
interest in medical devices based on cold atmospheric pressure plasma (CAP) in
recent years.
Fractional CO2
(FXCO2) laser therapy has been used for skin resurfacing. However,
the downtime after irradiation, such as the period with redness and/or
pigmentation of the irradiated skin, is of concern. The aim of this
retrospective clinical study was to evaluate and compare the effects of CAP on
acute wounds created by a fractional CO2 (FXCO2)
laser on four treatment groups.
This study was
conducted between September 2017 and November 2018 to compare treatment
outcomes of four identically-sized irradiated regions on the left forearm of
healthy volunteer subjects. Twelve healthy volunteer subjects (9 women and 3
men) with a mean age of 34.3 ± 12.1 years old from the Tokyo City University
and Clinic F in metropolitan Tokyo were enrolled. Each of the 12 subjects
received irradiation on four areas of the same size (1.5 × 2.0 cm) on the
medial side of the left forearm, making a total of 48 lesions. Each lesion was
created using a FXCO2 laser therapy device. Each region was then
randomly assigned to one of four groups: 1) no treatment (control group), 2)
irradiated CAP for 60 seconds (plasma group), 3) topical application of
ointment containing betamethasone valerate (steroid group), or 4) two to three
sprays of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF group).
The primary outcome
of the skin was the change in absolute values of lightness index (L*), redness
index (a*I) of L*a*b color space, arithmetical mean roughness (Ra), and mean
melanin concentration. The secondary outcome was the clinical condition of the
wounds, including inflammation, crust formation, and hyper/hypo-pigmentation on
the recovering skin surface relative to the surrounding intact skin. Each item
was evaluated at post-treatment 0, 1, 3, 7, 14, 28 days and 1 year.
The results
revealed that the relative skin lightness index of the steroid group
demonstrated the earliest improvement, and the other groups had almost
equivalent improvement speed. At the end point of Day 28, all groups had skin
lightness values higher than those before treatment. Although no significant
difference was observed among all groups, the CAP group exhibited more rapid
recovery regarding a*I and Ra. No side-effects were observed in the CAP group.
All in all, this
study confirmed the effectiveness and safety of CAP, while avoiding the
side-effects of conventional therapies; thus CAP may be a future treatment of
choice in the field of medical plasma therapies.
Article by Akio
Nishijima, et al, from Japan.
Full access: http://t.cn/E5FZheV
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