Decontamination of burn wounds using a cold atmospheric pressure plasma jet

Decontamination of burn wounds using a cold atmospheric pressure plasma jet C.A.J. van Gils, S. Hofmann, B. Boekema and P. Bruggeman Eindhoven University of Technology, Department of Applied Physics, group EPG, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven In the treatment of burn wounds bacterial infections are a common problem. Next to conventional treatments, atmospheric pressure plasmas might be able to provide additional means to reduce the bacterial concentration in a burn wound. In this work the effects of an argon atmospheric pressure plasma jet on both the gram negative bacterium pseudomonas aeruginosa and human keratinocytes and fibroblasts are investigated. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common cause of infection in burn wound patients. Keratinocytes are the predominant cells in the epidermis and fibroblasts are critical for wound healing. The influence of discharge power, duty cycle, treatment time and the addition of air on the survivability of the bacteria and cells is determined for two different electrode geometries. To be able to directly treat tissue the gas temperature has to be near room temperature and the UV production has to be limited. The gas temperature in the plasma as well as outside the plasma is estimated from the rotational temperature of the rotational bands of OH(A-X) and N2(C-B) and thermocouple measurements respectively. Also the relative UV generated by the plasma is measured.