Contribution of a Portable Air Plasma Torch to Rapid Blood Coagulation as a Method of Preventing Bleeding

The effectiveness and mechanism of a low temperature air plasma torch in clotting blood are explored. Both blood droplets and smeared blood samples were used in the tests. The treated droplet samples reveal how blood clotting depends on the distance at which the torch operated, and for how long the droplets have been exposed to the torch. Microscopy and cell count of smeared blood samples shed light on dependencies of erythrocyte and platelet counts on torch distance and exposure time. With an increase of torch distance, the platelet count of treated blood samples increases but is less than that of the control. The flux of reactive atomic oxygen (RAO) and the degree of blood clotting decreased. With an increase of exposure time, platelet count of treated samples decreased, while the degree of clot increased. The correlation among these dependencies and published data support a blood clotting mechanism that RAO as well as other likely reactive oxygen species generated by the plasma torch activate erythrocyte–platelets interactions and induces blood coagulation. 5 These authors contributed equally to this study. New Journal of Physics 11 (2009) 115016 1367-2630/09/115016+17$30.00 © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft