Cold Plasma Therapy for Treating Wounded Limbs
Abstract
Complex infections in severed limbs will become increasingly problematic to treat given that future warfare will likely take place over a period of weeks and over large areas, thereby hindering the rapid evacuation of casualties. In addition, it is well known that mangled limbs respond poorly to conventional topical antibiotic gels and dressings primarily due to the highly complex trauma to the muscle, bones, nerves and vasculature. To address this, we propose to develop a new means of sterilizing complex wounds, using a thin-film sleeve to protect the wound and to provide an isolated environment capable of sustaining a therapeutic cold plasma. Plasmas are gases that have been electrically energized to contain free electrons and ions. Recently, it has been demonstrated that plasmas have a surprising ability to selectively kill bacterial cells while leaving mammalian tissue intact. We hypothesize that cold plasmas will be moreeffective at treating highly complex wounds, in part due to ease of distributing an ionized gas plasma across complex surfaces of varying shape, size and texture. The sleeve is based on the concept of ACCSIL (Acute Care Cover for Severely Injured Limbs), which was designed to preserve the tissues of the injured limb in the best possible state during delays prior to evacuation and during evacuation itself.We hypothesize that the synergistic combination of a plasma-assisted ACCSIL~what we term ~PACCSIL~~will be an effective tool to stabilize and treat severe wounds in the battlefield. PACCSIL is a stasis system for the wounded warfighter that will prevent further degradation and secondary sequelae by holding the wound in physiological stasis until the casualty can be transported to a site of definitive field care allowing for the best possible chance for recovery. The final PACCSIL system would be a selfcontained, hand-held device capable of ionizing a gas within an air-tight containment sleeve surrounding the wound. The bacterial kill mechanism of plasma therapy is still quite poorly understood and must be determined in order to deploy a field-ready device. The chief aims of this proposal combine elucidation of the mechanism of action of plasma therapy and development of a proof-of-concept, portable PACCSIL system.The 3 primary technical objectives to achieve our goal of developing PACCSIL will be conducted in parallel:1. Design and build a lightweight, portable cold plasma generator device with abiocompatible sleeve that isolates a model infection from the environment.2. Test antibacterial capability of PACCSIL system using a cell-based, phantomtissue, and artificial limb models to determine critical design parameters thatmaximize efficacy.3. Measure biochemical and molecular effects of PACCSIL treatment to understand the mechanism of action.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jun 13, 2019
- Source ID
- N000141912401
Entities
People
- Paul Cherukuri
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Rice University
- United States Navy