Wound treatment by low-temperature atmospheric plasmas and issues in plasma engineering for plasma medicine

Recent developments in sources of low-temperature atmospheric plasma have expanded their applications in medicine, leading to the establishment of the field of 'plasma medicine'. In the first half of this paper, the clinical studies conducted to date on wound treatments using low-temperature atmospheric plasmas are summarized. In the second half, several issues in plasma medicine are discussed from the viewpoint of plasma engineering. A comparison of different plasma sources and the monitoring of plasma conditions are highlighted. Moreover, the necessity of developing standards in order to expand the application of low-temperature atmospheric plasmas in medicine is discussed. (author)