Cold atmospheric plasma as an effective method to treat diabetic foot ulcers: A randomized clinical trial

Shahriar Mirpour 1, Sara Fathollah 2, Parvin Mansouri 3, Bagher Larijani 4, Mahmood Ghoranneviss 4, Mohammadreza Mohajeri Tehrani 5, Mohammad Reza Amini

Main idea: Cold atmospheric plasma can be an efficient method to accelerate wound healing in diabetic foot ulcers, with immediate antiseptic effects that do not seem to last long.

Abstract

Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) shown to decrease bacterial load in chronic wounds. It was presented as a novel approach to healing wounds in both in vitro and in vitro experiments. We aimed to examine the first randomized clinical trial for the use of CAP in diabetic foot ulcers. CAP was generated from ionized helium gas in ambient air and driven by a high voltage (10 kV) and high frequency (6 kHz) power supply. Primary outcomes were wound size, a number of cases reaching wound size of <0.5, and a bacterial load after over three weeks of treatment. CAP treatment effectively reduced the fraction of wound size. After three weeks, the wound-to-reach fraction wound size was significantly greater in the SC + CAP group compared to the SC group. The mean fraction of bacterial load counted in each session ‘after CAP exposure’ was significantly less than ‘before exposure’ measures.

Source NIH