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Atmospheric pressure plasma represents a groundbreaking advancement in medical technology, offering therapeutic benefits without the need for specialized vacuum equipment or invasive procedures. This innovative fourth state of matter operates at normal atmospheric conditions, making it particularly suitable for direct medical applications on patients. Unlike traditional plasma systems that require complex vacuum chambers, atmospheric pressure plasma can be generated and applied safely at room temperature, opening new possibilities for non-invasive treatments across multiple medical specialties.
Atmospheric pressure plasma, also known as cold atmospheric plasma (CAP), is a unique ionized gas state where electrons, ions, neutral particles, and electromagnetic fields coexist at near room temperature[1]. This technology generates reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) that interact with biological tissues to promote healing and therapeutic effects without causing thermal damage.
The therapeutic power of atmospheric pressure plasma lies in its ability to produce a complex mixture of biologically active species. These include hydroxyl radicals, hydrogen peroxide, nitric oxide, and superoxide anions that work synergistically to achieve therapeutic outcomes[2].
The MIRARI® Cold Plasma System, developed by General Vibronics and FDA-cleared in November , exemplifies how atmospheric pressure plasma technology is transforming modern healthcare through its innovative nitric oxide-enriched plasma delivery[2].
Traditional atmospheric pressure plasma devices primarily generate reactive oxygen species through atmospheric ionization. However, newer technologies like the Mirari Cold Plasma system utilize nitric oxide (NO) as the primary therapeutic agent, offering enhanced precision in targeting specific biological pathways[2].
Research demonstrates that ROS destroys while RNS rebuilds, highlighting the importance of controlled atmospheric pressure plasma generation to achieve optimal therapeutic outcomes. The balance between these species determines treatment efficacy and safety profiles.
Atmospheric pressure plasma has demonstrated remarkable efficacy in wound healing applications, particularly for chronic and difficult-to-heal wounds. Clinical studies show accelerated healing with reduced infection rates across multiple wound types[3].
Studies using helium plasma jets with 8.5 kV, 17 kHz parameters applied for 90-180 seconds daily showed statistically higher wound closure rates in diabetic mice after 14 days of treatment. The therapy significantly reduced inflammatory markers while increasing growth factors essential for healing[3].
Research examining 25 kHz, 5 kV helium plasma jets demonstrated accelerated pressure ulcer wound re-epithelialization, angiogenesis, and fibrosis compared to untreated controls. The treatment reduced inflammation duration while significantly accelerating wound healing and contraction[3].
Atmospheric pressure plasma therapy has shown significant promise in dermatological applications, offering a non-invasive alternative to traditional treatments. The antimicrobial properties effectively inactivate bacteria, viruses, and fungi, including antibiotic-resistant strains like MRSA[2].
Studies using argon plasma jets with 50/60 Hz frequency for burn wound treatment showed significant decreases in proinflammatory cytokines and increases in anti-inflammatory markers. The treatment enhanced collagen synthesis and improved wound organization[3].
The FDA clearance of the MIRARI® Cold Plasma system specifically includes heating for tissue temperature elevation for selected medical conditions, validating its use in pain management applications[2].
Clinical studies involving 298 treatment sessions showed excellent patient tolerance with atmospheric pressure plasma therapy. Among all sessions, 46.3% reported no pain, 41.3% experienced mild pain, and only 12.4% had moderate discomfort[6].
Research indicates that 56.9% of patients experienced no burning sensation during treatment, while 40.1% reported mild sensations. Only 2% experienced moderate burning, attributed to gentle gas flow pressure on treated surfaces[6].
Studies examining atmospheric pressure plasma safety using different flow rates and exposure times found that tissue damage depends on discharge parameters. Optimized parameters ensure therapeutic efficacy while maintaining maximum safety for patient treatment[5].
Atmospheric pressure plasma offers several distinct advantages over traditional medical treatments. Unlike thermal therapies that risk tissue damage, this technology operates at safe temperatures while providing antimicrobial effects, pain relief, and tissue regeneration simultaneously.
The technology requires no incisions, injections, or invasive procedures. Patients can receive treatment in outpatient settings with immediate return to normal activities, making it particularly suitable for elderly or immunocompromised individuals.
Recent research demonstrates that atmospheric pressure plasma treatment significantly increases serum glutathione (GSH) levels and GSH/GSSG ratios, suggesting enhanced antioxidant capacity. The treatment also elevates glutathione peroxidase (GPX) protein levels and enzyme activity[4].
The Mirari Cold Plasma system, available through Mirari Doctor (miraridoctor.com), represents a significant advancement in making atmospheric pressure plasma technology accessible for clinical use. This handheld device utilizes proprietary nitric oxide generation to deliver precise, controlled plasma therapy in various clinical settings[2].
As atmospheric pressure plasma moves toward widespread clinical adoption, standardization of treatment parameters becomes crucial. Research focuses on optimizing exposure times, plasma composition, and treatment schedules for different medical conditions to ensure reproducible clinical outcomes.
Atmospheric pressure plasma shows excellent compatibility with existing medical treatments. Studies demonstrate enhanced efficacy when combined with conventional therapies, often improving outcomes while reducing overall treatment complexity and patient burden.
Research reveals that atmospheric pressure plasma treatment alters serum proteome expression, with 59 differentially expressed proteins identified after treatment. These changes primarily affect glutathione metabolism and leukocyte migration signaling pathways[4].
Future developments focus on personalizing atmospheric pressure plasma treatments based on individual patient characteristics, condition severity, and treatment response patterns to optimize therapeutic outcomes.
Patients with chronic wounds, inflammatory skin conditions, and those requiring non-invasive pain management represent ideal candidates for atmospheric pressure plasma treatment. The technology’s safety profile makes it particularly suitable for patients who cannot tolerate conventional therapies.
Successful atmospheric pressure plasma therapy requires careful consideration of treatment parameters including gas composition, flow rate, exposure time, and treatment frequency. These factors must be optimized based on specific medical conditions and patient responses.
Atmospheric pressure plasma therapy demonstrates an excellent safety profile with minimal adverse effects reported in clinical studies. The treatment operates at body temperature and has shown no systemic toxicity, making it suitable for most patients including those with compromised immune systems or chronic conditions.
Unlike laser therapy that uses focused light energy, atmospheric pressure plasma provides multiple therapeutic mechanisms simultaneously including antimicrobial effects, growth factor stimulation, and improved circulation. The technology operates at safe temperatures without risk of thermal damage, offering broader therapeutic benefits with enhanced safety.
Yes, atmospheric pressure plasma can be safely applied to facial areas when used according to established protocols. Clinical studies show minimal adverse effects with most patients experiencing only mild, temporary sensations during treatment. The technology maintains safe temperatures and includes specific guidelines for facial applications.
Research shows excellent results for chronic wounds, diabetic ulcers, burn treatment, inflammatory skin conditions, and pain management. Conditions involving impaired healing, bacterial infections, or chronic inflammation tend to show the greatest response to atmospheric pressure plasma treatment.
Treatment effects vary based on the specific condition and individual patient factors. For wound healing, benefits are typically seen within days to weeks with sustained improvement over time. Pain relief may be immediate with cumulative benefits developing through repeated treatments. Long-term studies show sustained improvements in treated conditions.
Atmospheric pressure plasma represents a revolutionary advancement in medical technology, offering safe, effective, and non-invasive treatment options across multiple medical specialties. The technology’s unique ability to operate at normal atmospheric pressure while generating therapeutic reactive species makes it particularly valuable for clinical applications. With devices like the Mirari Cold Plasma system leading the way, atmospheric pressure plasma therapy promises to transform healthcare delivery by providing accessible, patient-friendly treatments that achieve excellent clinical outcomes with minimal side effects.
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As research continues to expand our understanding of atmospheric pressure plasma mechanisms and optimize treatment protocols, this technology will likely become an integral component of modern medical practice, offering hope for patients with challenging conditions while advancing the field toward more personalized, effective healthcare solutions.
Plasma is an energetic gas and is created by adding energy to a normal gas and is considered the next step in matter from solid, liquid and gas to plasma.
In the normal states of matter, the molecules themselves move apart from each other, but remain intact. For example oxygen will be O2 in solid, liquid and gas form. As energy is added to a solid, the molecules shake and move away from each other. As they go from liquid to gas the molecules have so much energy that they now bounce all over and only weakly interact with other oxygen molecules.
In a plasma, the O2 itself gets ripped apart, creating ions, radicals, free electrons and other excited species. These excited bits are plasma and they interact strongly to react with materials or simply transfer energy and create a new and useful surface.
While this sounds complex, it’s something that happens more often than you may realise and especially in space it’s the most common form of matter. The sun and all the stars are forms of plasma. The highly energetic areas of the sky called nebula are plasmas. The northern lights are plasma!
Here in the real world, we also see it all around too but we might not call the examples plasma in every day use. Fire, neon lights and plasma televisions are all examples of energetic plasma systems being used. One of the big plasma sightings in the real world are the Northern Lights which stun with colours of different gas plasma compositions high in the atmosphere, we found this article on them very interesting!
Plasma is created by adding energy to a gas and in most cases for surface treatment the obvious gas to use is air. Some specialist systems or older systems might prefer pure oxygen and in some cases it might be sensible to use argon, nitrogen or other specific chemistry to tailor the process and avoid the use of oxygen entirely.
Tantec Plasma systems all add energy to the gas by using high voltage, which is an efficient and controllable technique that can be scaled from small lab based systems up to large industrial machines. This method creates the plasma using high voltage, but the plasma discharge itself is voltage free so even a powerful machine can treat delicate substrates like PCBs or thin films without causing damage.
While we discuss the pure plasma systems here, it’s worth knowing about the similar technology called Corona Treatment which works in a very similar way, however, instead of using the high voltage just to energise the plasma, it goes through the part too.
A common question is what’s the difference between plasma and corona, and it’s true to say that a corona treater is a type of plasma but the key difference is you could touch a plasma (it might be hot so don’t run out to try) but you could never touch a corona because it is high voltage and can often be many thousands of volts.
On creating and directing a plasma at a material, firstly plasma cleaning will take place by transferring energy in the plasma to the contamination and obliterating any light oils and greases by effectively turning them into a plasma too. This leaves behind a perfectly clean surface and for some materials like glass, metals and ceramics this is all that happens and the exposed surface is great for bonding.
Secondly, especially for softer materials like plastics and rubbers we move on to plasma treatment. Polymers are mostly made of long chains of carbon and hydrogen. The excited molecules in plasma can attack these chains and insert themselves in, adding reactive molecules like oxygen or others present in the gas which break up the surface and add that little bit of extra chemistry that makes a big difference for adhesion.
This new chemistry only effects the top molecular layers of the material so it’s not changing it significantly, but it is giving the interface layer that little jump it needs to interact strongly with adhesives, paints, printing inks and any other liquid that it comes in to contact with.
If we leave our plasma treatment on for a longer period, we will start to break up the material surface and etch away. This might be beneficial for some materials but for many it’s more like overtreatment so knowing what is happening is important.
Once cleaned or treated, the reactivity and available energy for interacting with is a measurable quality of the surface known as Surface Free Energy and is often measured for determining how much treatment has been applied. Some call it dyne level and it can be measured using Dyne Pens and Test Inks or Contact Angle measuring systems.
Plasma treatment can be performed in two key methods which are nozzle, atmospheric type systems or vacuum plasma systems.
Vacuum plasma, also known as low pressure plasma, is one of the most powerful and versatile plasma systems available.
The Tantec VacuTEC series has a number of standard designs and can also be custom built to meet specific requirements. They’re high performing industrial systems used globally to treat many materials and trusted for demanding industries like automotive and medical device manufacturing.
Atmospheric Plasma, also known as open air plasma, plasma discharge, air plasma and cold plasma, is a treatment system that comes in a range of shapes and sizes, from small focused jets to wide plasma curtains.
Both forms of plasma treatment have their uses and using one over the other normally comes down to the way production is run, the size of the part and the number of parts to be treated.
We find that some customers get drawn to one treatment technique over another – perhaps because they’ve heard of it, or used it before elsewhere. But the truth usually is that either technology (or corona treatment) are likely to be successful in treating the material.
The real question is how are you looking to use and integrate the systems?
Inline systems on high speed lines are unlikely to use vacuum plasma because vacuum treatment systems are batch processing. There is the VacuLINE system but even this is batch indexing, certainly difficult to use for something like an extrusion.
Equally, a moulded 3D component such as an automotive interior part requiring 100% ‘A Surface’ treatment, or even the entire part treatment, will struggle with a plasma nozzle. The plasma treatment nozzles are fantastic at area treatment but very difficult to get in to tight areas or large areas. Even a skilled robot programmer will find it tough to get the same speed and distance over the entire part of a large dashboard.
There can be some differences between Atmospheric Plasma Treatment and Vacuum Plasma Treatment and working in the lab to determine surface energy and performance strength is key to understanding any differences.
Where we might see a difference is when we’re trying to really do something specific, like when we use gases or precursor vapours in the treatment. A nozzle works with high pressure air flow and is exposed to the world, so adding something to this flow can be costly and potentially dangerous if not controlled.
Vacuum plasma on the other hand is operating at maybe 1/th of normal air pressure, so it only takes a tiny volume of gas or vapour to quickly fill the chamber, which is controlled and can be vented to scrubbers or external extraction. Some customers use acid vapours in these machines which would not be sensible for use with air plasmas.
These examples are quite specific, in reality, air is the most common treatment gas and both systems perform around the same so the question goes back to ‘how do you want to integrate and install your plasma treatment equipment?’
Using Plasma as a pretreatment in manufacturing is becoming more and more common. Traditionally it was reserved for more high end applications while more manual or chemical heavy processes could be used cheaply for standard processing.
With environmental concerns restricting the use of many cleaning or priming chemicals, and product quality being more important that ever restricting the use of manual processes like abrasion, plasma treatment is an automated, repeatable and environmentally friendly technology that solves a number of manufacturing problems.
This technology is also useful across a wide range of materials and often doesn’t need big parameter or machine changes. Both types of plasma are used to clean, treat and activate metals, polymers, glass, ceramics, circuit boards, composites and almost any material that it can help with.
For some applications it can be true that plasma treatment performance isn’t as good as some traditional harsh chemical primers and cleaners and the trade off might mean redesigning or rethinking your materials or processes, however, once understood how and where treatment is useful, you can deploy it again and again.
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