Biological and medical application of atmospheric plasmas

Atmospheric, non-thermal plasma (NTP) technology offers great promise to address several infection control issues in health care and life sciences. NTP-based processes have the ability to inactivate harmful infectious microorganisms (pathogens) with minimal impact to surrounding material and tissue. In addition, NTP processes offer advantages over antibiotics and chemical disinfectants: lethality against broad spectrum of pathogens including antibiotic-resistant organisms and viruses, and absence of environmentally-harmful by-products. Most current research focuses on ex vivo applications: sterilization of heat and moisture sensitive medical devices, bio-waste management and air purification. An example of this type of application is the PlasmaSol technology with generating of active sterilizing radical species of to disinfect airborne, waterborne and surface pathogens. Longer term, clinicians conceive of minimally-invasive, NTP-based therapies to treat in vivo persistent infections. These infections drastically increase morbidity and mortality in the growing immuno-compromised patient population. Specific applications will be discussed including ventilator-associated pneumonia, prosthetic-related endocarditis and septic failure of orthopedic implants.