Fast Blood Coagulation of Capillary Vessels by Cold Plasma: A Rat Ear Bleeding Model

Cold atmospheric pressure plasmas previously have been shown to be effective in vitro in generating active species, radicals, and charges, which may aid in various processes of interest to medicine, including blood coagulation. Floating electrode dielectric barrier discharge microsecond-pulsed, high-voltage plasma was used in an animal model of hairless Sprague-Dawley rats to treat an incision on the ear. The results confirm cold plasma’s ability to coagulate blood in a live animal model. A small incision in the rat ear, cutting the thin epidermis and slicing through the capillaries, creates a small and controllable wound from which bleeding is observed. Without plasma treatment, the animal bleeds for approximately 2 minutes, whereas a 10-second treatment is sufficient to coagulate blood. Cold plasma floating electrode dielectric barrier discharge was shown to effectively coagulate bleeding small vessels, which may prove beneficial in surgical intervention treatments of, for example, vocal cord surgery, eye surgery, or brain surgery, for which other means of coagulation may be prohibitive. Future animal trials will include larger animals and different bleeding sites, with the potential to move on to human trials.